TWO UC CAMPUSES WILL COLLABORATE ON MEDICINAL POT STUDY

San Diego Center To Coordinate Research Throughout State; UCSF Will Be Partner

A state-funded program to study the benefits and safety of marijuana to
treat certain diseases is being established at the University of California.

The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, based at the University of
California-San Diego, will be a collaboration between UCSD and the
University of California-San Francisco, two of the UC system's leading
biomedical research campuses.

``I hope this center will give us some answers to the benefits of marijuana
for medicinal purposes,'' said Donald Abrams, co-director of the cannabis
center and a professor of medicine at UCSF. ``By doing the science, we can
properly determine, and mandate what is good and bad.''

The cannabis center will administer $3 million in first-year funding to
support and coordinate scientific research at universities and research
centers throughout California, assessing the use of cannabis as an
alternative for treating specific medical conditions.

Abrams said the symptoms and conditions for which cannabis might be a
useful treatment option include severe appetite suppression, chronic pain
resulting from certain types of diseases such as AIDS and nausea associated
with cancer and its treatment.

Support will be awarded on a competitive basis to those studies determined
to be of the highest scientific quality, with studies anticipated to begin
as early as January 2001.

California voters approved the use of medicinal marijuana in 1996 with the
passage of Proposition 215, but because of the lack of definitive research,
it was unclear what role the substance should play in patient care, or how
it should be administered as a pharmaceutical agent.