HIV PATIENTS: MARIJUANA EASES FOOT PAIN

SAN FRANCISCO - Smoking marijuana eased HIV -related pain in some
patients in a small study that nevertheless represented one of the
few rigorous attempts to find out if the drug has medicinal benefits.

The study, conducted at San Francisco General Hospital from 2003 to
2005 and published Monday in the journal Neurology, involved 50
patients suffering from HIV-related foot pain known as peripheral
neuropathy. There are no drugs specifically approved to treat that
kind of pain.

Half the patients received marijuana, while the other 25 received
placebo cigarettes that lacked the drug's active ingredient,
tetrahydrocannabinol. Scientists said the study was the first one
published that used a comparison group, which is generally considered
the gold standard for scientific research.

"These results provide evidence that there is measurable medical
benefit to smoking cannabis for these patients," said Dr. Donald
Abrams, the University of California, San Francisco professor who led
the study.

"People who smoke marijuana are subject to bacterial infections in
the lungs," said David Murray, chief scientist at the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. "Is this really what a physician who is
treating someone with a compromised immune system wants to prescribe?"

Dr. Mark Ware, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal
conducting similar tests, defended Abrams' study as sound and
statistically reliable.

"This is a valid medicine and I want safe access to my medication,"
said Diana Dodson, a 50-year-old grandmother of five who participated
in the test in 2004.

California and 10 other states have passed laws legalizing marijuana
for medicinal purposes, but the federal government considers it a
dangerous drug, like cocaine or heroin. The U.S. Supreme Court U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that state laws do not protect users from
the federal ban.

The study cost about $1 million and was paid for by the University of
California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, which has
sponsored several smoked marijuana tests.

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Neurology journal: http://www.neurology.org