MONKEYS CRAVE POT, STUDY FINDS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Monkeys repeatedly dosed themselves with the main active
ingredient of marijuana in a new federal study. The researchers say that
result emphasizes the idea that people can get hooked on pot and provides a
new way to test therapies.

Lab animals will actively dose themselves with most drugs abused by people,
but marijuana has been an exception, said researcher Steven Goldberg of the
National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Some people might interpret that as suggesting it has little potential for
addiction, he said. But the new work found that squirrel monkeys repeatedly
pushed a lever to get injections of the marijuana ingredient THC, Goldberg
and colleagues report in the November issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Not everybody agrees. "This drug is not addicting. Clinical experience says
that," said Dr. Lester Grinspoon, chairman of the board of the NORML
Foundation, which promotes medical use of marijuana.