Science Cannabis

254 THE SCIENCE OF MARIJUANAto an ongoing dispute between the state government and the federal governmentwho maintained that cannabis was an illegal drug and couldnot be provided for any purpose. Doctors were threatened with havingtheir medical licences revoked if they cooperated with the Californiascheme. Nevertheless cannabis buyers clubs were established and for awhile they supplied patients with cannabis for medical use. Some cannabisclubs, however, were not as cautious and seemed intent on makingthe drug available to all comers. Most notoriously in San Francisco, marijuanaguru Dennis Peron served approximately 10,000 clients from theSan Francisco Cannabis Cultivators Club near the city's civic center.The club was decorated with thousands of origami birds dangling frommobiles, brilliantly colored jungle murals, and was permeated with hardrock music and the unmistakable smell of marijuana smoke. Peron wasquoted as saying:"All marijuana use is medicinal."The Institute of Medicine Report (1999) included survey data onmembers of the San Francisco Club and the similar Los Angeles CannabisResource Center. Almost two-thirds of the patients surveyed at eachlocation were using marijuana to treat HIV or AIDS-related symptomsand the remainder suffered from a wide range of conditions, includingcancer, musculoskeletal disorders (arthritis, rheumatism, multiple sclerosis),chronic pain, and mood disorders.After a considerable legal battle between the state and the federalgovernments, the buyers clubs were forced to close, leaving medicalusers with no organized means of supply. In January 1997, the prestigiousmedical publication The New England Journal of Medicine published anunusual editorial entitled Federal Foolishness and Marijuana which criticizedthe United States government's attempts to quash the Californiainitiative and argued for the rescheduling of marijuana.Meanwhile a number of expert groups were set up to review thecase for the medical use of cannabis, and their findings have alreadybeen referred to elsewhere in this volume. In the United States, theAmerican Medical Association report Medical Marijuana (1997) recom-