FATE OF MEDICAL-MARIJUANA PROGRAM COULD REST WITH PUBLIC

New Mexico's success at reviving its therapeutic marijuana program could
depend on public perceptions of the quality of government-issue weed.

"Would people be enthusiastic about enrolling if they felt - and word got
out - that it was not very potent?" asked Dr. Steve Jenison, physician
administrator of the state Health Department's infectious diseases bureau,
who is working to reactivate the long-lapsed marijuana program.

Gov. Gary Johnson has ordered health officials to resurrect the
distribution of marijuana to patients for whom it might alleviate symptoms.
The pot program - the first of its kind in the nation - has not been funded
since 1986.

But the only way to legally distribute marijuana is under a federal
research waiver, available only for controlled experiments. And the studies
must use "research grade" marijuana from a farm in Mississippi.

Bryan Krumm of New Mexicans for Compassionate Use has said the federal pot
is about five to six times less potent than some of the high-grade
marijuana sold on the street today. That's a concern, Krumm said, because a
patient would need to smoke more - and risk more smoking-related health
dangers - to get the same relief.

Such considerations could discourage potential participants from a
state-run study, Jenison said.

"Before we undertake to make application to the federal government, I think
we should have a fairly good idea whether these people who take marijuana
for relief of symptoms would be interested in big-enough numbers that you
could actually do a research protocol," he said.

The University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center has declined to
participate, saying synthetic pills of marijuana's main active ingredient,
THC, make tests with crude marijuana unnecessary.

A number of doctors surveyed by Jenison say they think some of their AIDS
or chemotherapy patients might get better relief from smoking pot than from
taking synthetic THC pills, Jenison said.

"But then people get a little more circumspect when you ask whether they
think a research protocol is feasible, simply because of the number you
would have to enroll in order to answer a research question," Jenison added.

New Mexico's first marijuana-research program compared smoked marijuana vs.
THC capsules for easing nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy. The research
concluded that smoking pot worked better for many patients.

In recent years, interest has surged in marijuana's potential benefit for
treating chronic nausea and anorexia related to AIDS and AIDS treatments.
Jenison said an experiment in San Francisco is now looking into whether
smoking pot affects a patient's blood levels of certain AIDS medications.

Late last year, an Albuquerque cancer patient named Tony Cognetto
petitioned the state Supreme Court to enforce New Mexico's 1978
medical-marijuana law and immediately revive the dormant distribution
program. The court refused to hear the case.

Cognetto, an electronics technician and father of two, died Sunday at his
South Valley home. He was 46.

Jenison said the Health Department is committed to reviving the marijuana
program. He said a patient-review board of physicians has been chosen, and
Jenison is working to develop a research protocol, but he would not guess
how soon the state will apply for the federal research waiver.

"Implementation is not going to be a simple matter. I think it needs to be
done very thoughtfully, and that's what we're trying to do," he said.

Since 1996, voters in nine states have approved some type of
medical-marijuana initiative designed to circumvent federal law and permit
therapeutic use of marijuana - from any source - for certain patients.

In those states where the votes have been allowed to stand, the initiatives
have opened the doors far wider to legal weed than New Mexico's law allows.

Those initiatives run contrary to federal law - something the New Mexico
therapeutic-marijuana statute explicitly forbids.