Kenji Ogasawara returned from a visit to Hawaii seven years ago on a natural high. Partially paralyzed by multiple sclerosis in mid-1994, he left for Honolulu later that year in a wheelchair. On his return to Narita two weeks later, he stepped off the plane on his own two feet.

The apparent miracle, he says, was the result of treatment he had received that utilized the world's most controversial herb -- marijuana.

"I couldn't believe the results -- both physically and mentally," said Ogasawara, 36.

Sensation returned to his legs and left arm, and the chronic pain in his joints disappeared. Insomnia, depression and several past suicide attempts seemed like distant nightmares.

"I will never forget how my wife's face lit up when I came back from Hawaii," he said.

Ogasawara is one of thousands of patients around the globe who have used, or still use, marijuana as part of their treatment in combating painful and often debilitating diseases, some of which have no known cure.

The plant has been reported to ease pain in those suffering from such illnesses as MS and arthritis. AIDS patients say it stimulates appetite, while for cancer victims it is an effective way of coping with the nauseating side effects of chemotherapy. It also can prevent migraines and menstrual cramps.

Those reporting positive effects of the drug are the beneficiaries of increased leniency toward cannabis for medical use in several European countries as well as in some areas of the United States.

Although the U.S. federal government still treats the use of cannabis as a crime, California, Arizona and Hawaii are among nine states where medical marijuana has been legalized for patients with certain conditions, according to the American Medical Marijuana Association.

In Europe, meanwhile, marijuana products are readily available in stores and coffee shops in the Netherlands and Germany, and, in 1999, Britain's Medical Research Council began looking into the medical benefits of the drug.

Further signs of change in the U.K. came last year when an MS patient was cleared by a district court after police found some 40 cannabis plants in his home. (The man insisted that cannabis was the only drug that eased his pain without unpleasant side effects.)

Stiff laws in Japan, however, mean there is no official verification of the medical benefits reported by the likes of Ogasawara.

The Marijuana Control Law, enacted in 1948 during the Allied Occupation, targets the plant's buds and leaves as a potential drug. According to a Health and Welfare Ministry official, it also prohibits any kind of research, medical or otherwise, that makes use of those parts of the plant.

In recent years, however, there have been calls for a relaxing of the law to enable research that could eventually pave the way for the drug's medical application.

The Japan Medical Marijuana Association, which is made up of patients, medical experts, academics and lawyers, among others, was established in 1999 to increase awareness about and secure the legalization of medical marijuana.

"According to Article 4 of the law, doctors can't prescribe [marijuana] to a patient, and even if they do, patients face five years behind bars," said JMMA member Koichi Maeda. "Doctors can't offer it to patients to try out, so research cannot even begin. It's a ridiculous law."

Supporters of the drug also point to an inconsistency in Japanese law that permits the medical use of morphine, which is otherwise illegal and has been shown to be more addictive than marijuana.

A health ministry official said that there is no need to legalize marijuana for medical purposes as "there are already a variety of other medicines" to treat illnesses such as MS.

Indeed, there are other drugs on the market. Hormone pills help increase weight, while Marinol, a drug that uses one of the active ingredients of marijuana, stimulates appetite.

Yet, patients say these drugs have their drawbacks.

"Marinol makes you sleepy and takes around two hours to take effect. Marijuana has an immediate impact," said one patient on condition of anonymity. "I've tried a number of drugs, but none has been as effective. What's more, it's safer than the other drugs."

The "safety" of marijuana has long been a point of contention. A 1997 World Health Organization report says cannabis "acutely impairs cognitive development and psychomotor performance, which increase the risk of motor vehicle accidents among those who drive intoxicated" by the drug.

Smoking marijuana, like tobacco, can also lead to lung cancer as well as a number of side effects, such as paranoia, critics say.

"The idea that marijuana is safe is just wishful thinking," the health ministry official said. "It's a dangerous drug. There are people who have developed mental illness through smoking marijuana."

The official added that he believed any drug that is harmful to humans -- including alcohol and tobacco -- should be banned.

Yet supporters in Japan are indignant of such claims.

"I have never heard of somebody dying from smoking cannabis," said JMMA's Maeda, who also runs a restaurant and store in Tokyo offering hemp products.

"There are a number of other medicines in use in Japan that are known to be poisonous, such as torikabuto [aconite], which has been responsible for a number of deaths."

Magic mushrooms and other so-called legal drugs, such as gamma hydroxybutyric acid, that have been shown to have sometimes lethal effects are also readily available in Japan.

Commenting on the idea of psychomotor impairment, another supporter argued it is legal alcohol, not illegal cannabis, that is the biggest killer in motor accidents.

Making the law even more puzzling for Maeda and other advocates of marijuana is Japan's long association with the herb before its outlawing in 1948.

The use of hemp in Japan for producing medicine, cloth, food and paper, among other items, dates back thousands of years to the Jomon Period. Clothes worn by Japanese emperors at enthronement ceremonies are made from hemp grown in Japan, as is the mawashi loincloth worn by the winner of a sumo tournament. Dozens of Shinto shrines around Japan are named "Taima," one of two Japanese words for marijuana. And the plant is still used in religious ceremonies as a symbol of warding off ill health.

More significantly, a medical handbook published in the 1930s recommends buds from the plant in treating asthma, insomnia and spasms.

"This was written 70 years ago, but it was probably handed down from thousands of years before that," Maeda said. "It's ironic that a herb that had such value as a medicine here so many years ago is now the subject of advanced medical research in Western countries -- one of which banned it in Japan."

MS patient Ogasawara, whose home was raided by police in February, laments the deeply ingrained prejudices in Japan regarding the herb.

For example, the word taima in Japan is now considered taboo, whereas the other Japanese word for the herb, asa, which is used exclusively to refer to hemp fabric, has nothing but positive connotations.

"No Japanese has anything bad to say about asa. It's used in many names [such as Maya, Mami and Asami], all of which have good meanings . . . inferring health, vigor and usefulness. But taima is never uttered in a loud voice. Few realize they were originally the same thing."

Before Ogasawara tried marijuana during that first visit to Hawaii, he admits, he had similar prejudices. Now he considers the herb his lifeline and plans to apply to the metropolitan government for a grower's license.

"I'm never going to recover from this disease. . . . If marijuana is more effective [than other medicines] in easing my pain, why can't I use it?"