UNIVERSITY TO STUDY MEDICAL MARIJUANA

SAN DIEGO - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration granted final approval
Wednesday for the first university study on medical marijuana in recent
memory. The agency said it hoped to introduce some science into what has
been an emotionally-charged debate.

Two professors of neurology at the University of California, San Diego
Medical Center will study the effects of marijuana on patients with
multiple sclerosis and those who suffer neuropathy, or nerve pain,
associated with AIDS.

The studies are the first to emerge out of the Center for Medicinal
Cannabis Research at UCSD, a program created by the state Legislature in
1999 to study the medical uses of marijuana. It will be a year before the
studies, which involve about 60 people, gather enough data to show whether
marijuana has any benefit, said Dr. Igor Grant, director of the center.
- -Associated Press