Page 8 THE BATTALION
. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1981
National / World
Pot substitute called flop
United Press International
WASHINGTON — A mari
juana reform group says the
government should stop
pushing a synthetic drug for
cancer and glaucoma treatment
and instead promote a better re
medy — the natural weed.
“The National Cancer Insti
tute’s synthetic substitute for
marijuana is a medical flop and a
financial disaster,” Robert Ran
dall, president of the Alliance
for Cannabis Therapeutics, said
Sunday.
Randall’s group favors the
legal use of natural marijuana to
ease the side effects of cancer
chemotherapy and treat glauco
ma, a debilitating eye disease
that often leads to blindness. It
argues the real stuff is cheaper
and more effective.
Thirty-two states permit
such access and a federal
appeals court has ordered the
Department of Health and Hu
man Services to review its pro
hibition of marijuana.
But the federal government
has sought to promote the use of
a synthetic drug, deIta-9THC,
instead of natural marijuana.
THC is the most psycho-active
ingredient in marijuana.
NCI spokesman Dr. Daniel
Hoth disputed Randall’s con
tention. He said the medical
use of marijuana is “a scientific
question that has to be
answered and all the data isn’t
in yet.”
With THC, he said, “the sci
entific trials have been com
pleted.”
Randall said last year NCI
estimated 50,000 cancer pa
tients would benefit from the
government’s THC program at
a cost of less than $1 million.
But, he said, in June the insti
tute conceded fewer than 3,000
patients actually have received
THC, that the synthetic drug
works only 30 percent of the
time, and that most patients
could not tolerate the its power
ful mind-altering affects.
“Federal bureaucrats have
spent a million dollars to tem
porarily provide less than 1,000
patients with a medically in
ferior product,” Randall said.
Work for 3 million by 1986
Reagan promises job:
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Today's Almanac
Today is Tuesday, Sept. 8, the
251st day of 1981 with 114 to
follow.
The moon is moving toward its
full phase.
The morning star is Mars.
The evening stars are Mercury,
Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.
Those born on this date are
779-5622 ext. 323 J under the sign of Virgo.
On this date in history:
In 1565, the first permanent
settlement of what is now the Con
tinental United States was found
ed at the present location of St.
Augustine, Fla.
In 1900, more than 6,000 peo
ple were killed when a hurricane
and tidal wave struck Galveston,
Texas.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan predicts his economic re
covery program will generate sev
eral million more jobs by 1986 and
give wage earners added purchas
ing power.
In a Labor Day radio address
aired Sunday, Reagan said of his
program to stimulate the nation’s
private sector: “Let me make our
goal in this program very clear:
jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs.
“I see an era in which wage
earners will be taking home more
money in real dollars and an era in
which fewer of us will be looking
for work,” he said.
Predicting “the creation of 3
million more jobs by 1986,” the
president was keeping his dis
tance from disenchanted union
leaders yesterday.
Celebrating the holiday,
Reagan flew to New York to pre
sent an $85 million federal check
to Mayor Edward Koch for con
struction of Westway, a Manhat
tan highway project.
Not far away, AFL-CIO Presi
dent Lane Kirkland led a parade of
thousands of workers down Fifth
Avenue to celebrate the organiza
tion’s 100th anniversary.
Labor leaders, irate at Reagan’s
firing of air traffic controllers who
went on strike in defiance of feder
al law, did not invite him to parti
cipate in the parade.
Before leaving the %
House, Reagan was to be
Defense Secretary Caspar W(
berger’s recommendations
slashing military spendinginlt
1983 and 1984.
Weinberger has balked all
cuts and will have a ebanct
make his case at a meetingto^
with Reagan and budget
David Stockman.
A group calling itself the
“Coalition to Defend the Air Traf
fic Controllers” planned to hold a
rally outside Gracie Mansion, the
mayor’s official home, where
Reagan was to present the check.
A spokesman for the striking
Professional Air Traffic Control
lers Organization said the union
had no connection with the de
monstration and would not parti
cipate.
Reagan spent the v
the White House, consid
budget reductions and prep
for a visit this week by la
Prime Minister Menachemb
gin.
Begin is to confer with Re®
on Wednesday and Thursdays
a major topic of discussion mayl
the president’s proposed $S,al
lion arms sale to Saudi Arabia-
package opposed by Israeli)
many members of Congress,
Want to have over
100
New Friends?
IRA hunger strike wanes
7^ as fifth striker breaks hs
*
Interested in Friendship, Leadership, Service?
if so join the guys and girls in
Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity
Come to our informal Pledge Rush
•V
Tonight
Wed. Sept. 9
8 p.m. 401 Rudder or
8 p.m. 302 Rudder
United Press International
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
— Another inmate joined the IRA
hunger strike Monday but the
grim protest appeared to be
weakening with the decision of
one faction to reduce its role and
the announcement that a fifth
striker had broken his fast.
Irish Republican Army inmate
John Pickering, 25, ate his last
meal Sunday night after he was
named to continue the hunger
strike abandoned by Laurence
McKeown. Pickering, who is un
married, is serving 26 years for a
bombing and for killing a part-
time soldier.
The announcement of a new
sixth hunger striker came after the
outlawed Irish National Libera
tion Army said it was scaling down
its involvement because at the
current rate all jailed members
would be dead in six months.
The mother of McKeown au
thorized medical treatment for
her son on his 70th day without
food. He was the fifth hunger
striker to break the fast since the
protest began March 1.
Meanwhile in Armagh, 35 miles
southwest of Belfast, gunmen
pumped at least four shots into the
head and chest of an off-duty
policeman outside the church
where he had attended mass, in
juring him seriously.
Hunger strike supporters said
they were not demoralized, but
observers said continued inter
vention by relatives of hunger
strikers would undermine the
Ju
As
M
pa
volunteers and three
hers died. Devine, who becat
the 10th and latest todieAugj
was the co-founder of the INL 1
the paramilitary arm ofthelii
Republican Socialist Party.
NI
campaign.
The IN LA, with 28 prisoners
remaining, had provided one hun
ger striker for every three IRA
Protesters are demanding
right to freely mingle, tow
their own clothes, reiiise pris
work, receive extra visitsandlf ident
ters and have their sentences t to tf
in half for good behavior. Bnt | fired
has refused on the
would be abandonning control
the prison.
Paintings saved
found in garbage
l
a
marc
day i
Amei
IGOtl
Tl
the s
fired
United Press International
NEW YORK — A call from
Cape Cod, Mass., saved a set of
Indian paintings owned by Jac
queline Kennedy Onassis that
were inadvertently thrown out of
her Fifth Avenue apartment
building with the trash.
A spokesman for the city’s Sani
tation Department said Sunday
that the paintings had been re
turned early Friday, after being
reframed, to Onassis’ apartment.
He said a cardboard box con-
crate
IV
loudl
it wai
■■■
Kirkl
shal i
lOOtl
ofth
parac
taining the works, which were cas j/
gift of India’s goverment to Ok . '
sis, was delivered to the rearofl cl P a
apartment, where a hi# P resi
maintenance worker mistook
container for a box of trash.
The man threw out the bond
the rest of the day’s garb®. j^ a:
which then was picked up I)]’
sanitation truck, the spokesns
said.
He said hours later thedepj!
ment received a call from “so®
Cape Cod” saying
paintings were missing and thal
was suspected that they had te
thrown out with the
The spokesman said the trtf
was emptied at a department it '
teach
a sea
flags;
celeb
New
Sn;
ers ft
1ST GENERAL MEETING
MSC GREAT ISSUES
MSC Great Issues is a student programming committee of the
Texas A&M student union — the Memorial Student Center. Funded
with student service fees, Great Issues serves the academic communi
ty of Texas A&M by presenting leading speakers on the important
issues of the day. The committee has served Texas A&M for over 25
years.
Since its inception, Great Issues has brought some of the leading
personalities of the day to Texas A&M. In recent years, it has
presented speakers such as William F. Buckley, Jr.; heart surgeon,
Michael Debakey; anthropologist, Richard Leakey; journalist, Jack
Anderson; and Nobel laureates, Milton Friedman and Paul
Samuelson.
Membership in Great Issues is open to all students who wish to
become involved in the presentation of speakers at Texas A&M. To
sign up, please contact a member of the committee or come by the
Student Programs Office (room 216) in the MSC.
i>
Tuesday, Sept. 8, 1981 7:30 p.m.
Rm. 510 Rudder Tower
ALL INTERESTED STUDENTS WELCOME