UC CENTER TO FUND FOUR MEDICINAL POT STUDIES

Research To Focus On Drug's Effect On Symptoms Of Illnesses

Hoping to inject some science into the acrimonious debate over using
marijuana in medicine, researchers will examine how the illegal drug
might help AIDS and multiple sclerosis patients in the first series
of studies sponsored by a new University of California research
center.

The Center for Medical Cannabis Research in La Jolla -- a
collaboration between the UC's San Diego and San Francisco campuses
- -- announced Thursday it will spend about $841,000 this year on the
following four new experiments:

In two independent studies, researchers in both San Francisco and San
Diego will investigate whether smoking marijuana can alleviate a
condition known as neuropathy, which afflicts AIDS, diabetes and
other patients with severe tingling and pain in their hands and feet.
One of these studies will focus on hospitalized patients, the other
on outpatients.

In San Diego, another researcher will examine how repeated treatment
with medicinal marijuana affects driving ability of patients with
HIV-related neuropathy or multiple sclerosis. The patients will be
tested using a driving simulator.

Another San Diego scientist will study how smoking marijuana might
ease the uncontrollable muscle spasms and pain that are a feature of
multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Igor Grant, a UC-San Diego psychiatrist who directs the research
center, said scientists have encountered daunting barriers to doing
research on the therapeutic benefits of marijuana, rather than on its
deleterious effects.

``This is really the first state initiative where a state has said,
`We are going to look seriously at whether there's any message here,
any truth to the benefits of marijuana,' '' Grant said. ``The money
is not a huge amount, but it is enough, we believe, to do high
quality, state-of-the-art research.

The research proposals must still be vetted by the Food and Drug
Administration, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the
Drug Enforcement Agency to make sure they comply with federal law.

The marijuana used in the research will be provided by a
NIDA-approved farm at the University of Mississippi. Typically, that
marijuana, which is rolled by machine into identically-sized joints,
has lower levels of the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol)
than marijuana available on the street, said Dr. Donald Abrams, a
UC-San Francisco professor of medicine.

The Center for Medical Cannabis Research opened last August with
money from legislation sponsored by state Sen. John Vasconcellos,
D-Santa Clara. Vasconcellos has stressed that his bill should not be
taken as encouragement for the recreational use of marijuana, and the
center uses the botanical term ``cannabis'' to avoid stigmatizing its
research.

The controversy over medicinal marijuana has grown since 1996, when
state voters passed Proposition 215, which allowed people to possess
and grow marijuana for treatment that is approved by a physician.
Studies are under way around the country to test the effectiveness of
marijuana in quelling nausea, easing pain, alleviating glaucoma and
stimulating appetite to prevent the ``wasting'' that occurs in many
AIDS patients.