Pubdate: Thur, 13 July 2000 Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI) Copyright: 2000 Honolulu Star-Bulletin Contact: P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802 Fax: (808) 523-8509 Feedback: http://starbulletin.com/forms/letterform.html Website: http://www.starbulletin.com/ TESTS BOOST MARIJUANA USE ON AIDS The patients taking marijuana by smoking or in pill form saw the level of HIV virus in their blood drop slightly more than those on the placebo. DURBAN, South Africa -- The first U.S. study using medical marijuana for people with HIV has found that smoking the plant does not disrupt the effect of anti-retroviral drugs that keep the virus in check. The results were announced today at the 13th International AIDS Conference and are the first to be released from research, conducted at San Francisco General Hospital, into the use of marijuana by people infected with HIV. Given the scarcity of data about the possible medical uses of marijuana, the results have been eagerly awaited by advocates in this heavily debated issue. It took four years for University of California San Francisco professor Donald Abrams to jump through hurdles erected by the federal government to get the research under way, and in the process he was restricted to focusing on marijuana's safety rather than its effectiveness. "The fact of the matter is that any good clinician with his eyes and ears open has known for a long time that cannabis is very useful in the treatment of the AIDS reduction syndrome and does not harm patients," said Dr. Lester Greenspoon, professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and author of "Marijuana: the Forbidden Medicine." "When all the dust settles, and when marijuana is admitted to the U.S. pharmacopia, it will be seen as one of the least toxic drugs in the whole compendium. What Don (Abrams) has done is put the seal of approval on a new drug with his double blind study." Researchers were keen to study people on drug regimes that contain protease inhibitors, because the key ingredient in marijuana is metabolized by the same system in the liver as those drugs. The 67 participants were divided into three groups, one smoking marijuana, one taking an FDA-approved pill containing marijuana's main ingredient, the third taking a placebo. In all groups, tests showed the level of virus in the blood dropped or remained undetectable. Those on marijuana either by smoking or in pill form saw their level drop more than those on the placebo.