Surgeon General Nominee Backs Use of Marijuana as Medicine

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — President-elect Bill Clinton’s choice for U.S. surgeon general said Saturday she will advocate the medicinal use of marijuana, and will support distributing condoms from high school-based health clinics around the country.

If physicians feel marijuana “would be beneficial for use by the patient . . . it should be available,” said Dr. Joycelyn Elders, director of the Arkansas Health Department.

Elders said in an interview that marijuana could be useful in treating glaucoma and to relieve nausea in patients with cancer or AIDS. Federal law bars the use of marijuana as medicine. Clinton spokeswoman Max Parker said the President-elect “supports the current law and has no plans to review it at this time.”

Elders, 59, has battled conservative groups in Arkansas by promoting distribution of contraceptives at school-based health clinics to combat AIDS and teen-age pregnancy.