Pubdate: Sat, 22 May 1999
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 1999 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://www10.nytimes.com/comment/
Author: SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

US EASES CURB ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCH

WASHINGTON -- Despite intense interest in the medical benefits of marijuana,
few scientists are studying it, because the government has always required
that such work be paid for by scarce grant money from the National
Institutes of Health.

That changed Friday when the Clinton administration eased the requirement,
announcing that it would sell government-grown marijuana to privately-funded
scientists.

The decision was issued as a regulation by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse and is supported by General Barry McCaffrey, who as director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy has been the administration's most
ardent opponent of the legalization of medical marijuana. "Before, the
problem was if you wanted marijuana, you had to not only show that it was
high-quality research, you had to show that it was more important than other
competing applications for NIH funding," said Chuck Blanchard, chief counsel
for McCaffrey's office. "Now, as long as you are willing to show that it is
high-quality research and also provide your own funding, you can have access
to medical marijuana."

Under the ruling, marijuana studies will still be reviewed for their
scientific merit, but it will become easier for state and local governments
to pay for the research. Experts and government officials hope the studies
could some day lead to the development of a new delivery system for
marijuana, such as an inhaler, that would enable patients to benefit from
its active ingredients without suffering the toxic effects of the smoke.
Some officials already say they hope to take advantage of the new rule.
"This news today gives us great hope," said Mike Nevin, a member of the San
Mateo County Board of Supervisors. About a year ago, he said, his board
allocated $500,000 for studies of marijuana in cancer and AIDS patients. "We
are hoping the federal government will grant us the ability to do this
study," he said, "and we are willing to pay."

For years, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has paid a farmer at the
University of Mississippi to grow marijuana for research, primarily studies
on addiction. The government also provides the drug to eight patients under
a "compassionate use" program authorized by the Food and Drug
Administration, but that program has been closed to new participants since
1992. In recent years, as interest grew in using marijuana as a medicine,
scientists have tried, with limited success, to persuade the National
Institutes of Health to pay for the studies. Only three studies have been
approved so far; among them is one being conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams of
the University of California at San Francisco, who said it took him five
years to obtain approval to study marijuana in AIDS patients. And even then,
Abrams had to mask his true research interest; although he wanted to examine
the effects of marijuana on the weight loss associated with AIDS, he pitched
the study as one that would look at the potentially toxic interactions
between marijuana and standard AIDS medications. "We designed a study that
would appeal to the group of people funding the grant," he said.

Friday's decision comes two months after an exhaustive study by the
Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences,
concluded that the active ingredients in marijuana, called cannabinoids,
appear useful for treating pain, nausea and the severe weight loss
associated with AIDS. Two years ago, a review by NIH officials reached a
similar conclusion.

"We have had several pretty distinguished groups now say that cannabinoids,
not smoked marijuana, may have some real potential medical usage," said Dr.
Steven Gust, special assistant to the director of the National Institute on
Drug Abuse. "This is a first step towards ultimately developing purified
forms of cannabinoids that may be FDA-approvable."

So far, there is only one cannabinoid-based drug on the market, Marinol,
manufactured by Unimed Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill. But some
patients complain that the Marinol pills are too potent, leading researchers
to theorize that an inhaler, similar to those used by asthma patients, might
be a more effective form of treatment.

Recognizing that such a method might take years to develop, the Institute of
Medicine report recommended that patients who did not respond to other
therapy be permitted to smoke marijuana. But the regulation issued Friday
said the government does not intend to approve "single-patient requests for
marijuana," because they do not "produce use useful scientific information."
Advocates for legalizing marijuana as medicine had both praise and criticism
for Friday's decision. "It is a tiny step forward, but far too tiny," said
Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, which backed initiatives
in California and Arizona to make marijuana legal for medical use. "It's an
implicit acknowledgement that the government has blocked research into
medical marijuana for explicitly political reasons for the last two
decades."

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