A MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESEARCH CENTER

Physicians at the San Francisco and San Diego campuses of the University of
California announced yesterday that they will set up a scientific research
center to study the medical uses and effects of marijuana.

The new Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, which is to be established
in San Diego, will start off with $3 million in state money for its first
year, the doctors said.

The money will support grants for well-controlled studies seeking to
determine whether the weed is safe and effective in relieving the
distressing side effects of powerful AIDS drugs and cancer chemotherapy agents.

One of the co-directors of the center will be Donald Abrams, a UCSF
professor of medicine and a pioneer community AIDS doctor.

The money comes as a result of a bill introduced by Sen. John Vasconcellos,
D-Santa Clara, and signed in October by Gov. Gray Davis. It calls for a
three-year program of research that will ``enhance understanding of the
efficacy and adverse effects of marijuana as a pharmacological agent.''

According to Abrams, the first research grants will be made in line with
the center's scientific agenda, focusing on the possible use of the weed in
allaying chronic pain, nausea and loss of appetite that pose major problems
for cancer and AIDS patients, and also for relieving spasticity and tremors
in patients with multiple sclerosis. Abrams in July reported on the first
federally approved safety study of smoked marijuana that he conducted in
San Francisco. Twenty AIDS patients who smoked ``government grade'' pot
under close medical supervision for three weeks ate better and gained an
average of 7.7 pounds compared with 22 patients who smoked only a placebo,
he found.

The beginning of a change in the official federal drug policy that has long
barred any experiments with marijuana was heralded in March when a detailed
scientific report from the National Research Council sought by President
Clinton recommended careful scientific studies of the weed's medical potential.

``This is an important opportunity to continue to evaluate the therapeutic
potential of cannabis,'' Abrams said. ``The findings of our initial safety
trial suggest that studies of the possible effectiveness of marijuana
should be launched now.''

The marijuana supplies for researchers approved by the new center will come
from the National Institute on Drug Abuse -- and then only after each study
has been approved by many bureaucratic layers, including local human
research committees, state health agencies, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration and the federal institute on drug abuse.