[superjoint]

HARTFORD, Conn. -- A Bush administration drug official on Thursday spoke against proposed state legislation that would let chronically ill patients use marijuana.

The House of Representatives may take up a bill that would allow patients with cancer, AIDS and other serious illnesses to grow and use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Dr. Andrea Barthwell, a deputy director in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said she had serious concerns about the implication medical marijuana could have on drug policy and on patients' health. There are already drugs on the market that use some of the components of the marijuana plant that have shown to relieve patients of symptoms like nausea.

"The crude plant is not a medicine," she said, noting that other drugs have gone through rigorous FDA tests. "Marijuana has not passed those tests."

Studies show that marijuana can have negative effects on the immune system in animal models, she said. She said people with AIDS and cancer, who would be eligible to use the drug, already have depressed immune systems.

An amendment supporting medical marijuana passed the House for the first time Wednesday, after a similar measure failed last year. The bill was sent to committee for further review.