PROFESSOR'S 'DOOBIE DERM' IS NO LAUGHING MATTER

ALBANY, N.Y. - Audra Stinchcomb says she has never smoked marijuana, but
that does not prevent colleagues at the Albany College of Pharmacy from
inquiring about her "pot patch" or "doobie derm" whenever they can.

Her two-year effort to research and develop a medical marijuana patch that
would release the drug's active ingredients through the skin has inspired
more one-liners than she can recall. The patch is intended to be used by
cancer patients for relief from nausea, vomiting and other side effects of
chemotherapy.

"Everybody always comes in and has a new joke for me," said Stinchcomb, 34,
an assistant professor at the pharmacy college and a leading researcher on
the ways that chemicals are absorbed through the skin. "I can't help it.
It's amusing."

But Stinchcomb's research is being taken seriously by doctors and
scientific researchers as evidence increasingly suggests that chemicals in
marijuana have health benefits. A report last year by the Institute of
Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the
chemicals, called cannabinoids, relieve pain and nausea, although the
report warned that marijuana smoke was even more toxic than tobacco smoke.

Earlier this month, Stinchcomb's proposal for a marijuana patch was awarded
a $361,000 grant from the American Cancer Society.

"I think this is a bold step for us," said Don Distasio, the cancer
society's chief operating officer in New York and New Jersey, who
acknowledged that the proposal was controversial but said it had been
screened by three panels of doctors, scientists and staff members as part
of the application process.

The project has also been approved by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, which regulates experiments with illegal drugs.

The patch would use synthetic cannabinoids created in a laboratory and is
years away from being tested on people. Eric Voth, chairman of the
International Drug Strategy Institute, an organization in Omaha, Neb., that
reviews drug policies, said the patch could pass along the therapeutic
effects of marijuana without making the drug itself available.

"It's no more a marijuana patch than a nicotine patch is a tobacco patch,"
Voth said. "I'm all for trying to find pure, reliable medicine, but I do
not support the idea of smoking weed for medicinal purposes."

Those who want to legalize marijuana also see the benefit of developing a
patch. "It is yet another acknowledgment, even if it is somewhat muted, by
the government that marijuana is a valuable medicine," said Allen St.
Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws.

Stinchcomb prefers to stay clear of the political debate. "There's an
extremely serious side to this, because it's treating cancer patients," she
said.