RESEARCHERS TEST "MARIJUANA PATCH"

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- A " marijuana patch" similar to the patches that
help smokers kick the habit could help relieve the pain and side
effects of cancer, researchers say.

The American Cancer Society is funding a three-year, $361, 000 grant
for research into a " marijuana patch" that is being announced
Thursday at the Albany College of Pharmacy.

A patch could provide an alternative to smoking marijuana for medical
purposes, which has been approved in some states but remains a
controversial issue nationwide.

The patch could ease the pain, nausea and vomiting that chemotherapy
patients can suffer, said Gail Tyner-Taylor of the American Cancer
Society of New York and New Jersey.

No such patch exists but research by Dr. Audra Stinchcomb, an
assistant professor who researches medications transmitted through the
skin, will explore whether it is feasible.

The concept is similar to patches that deliver controlled doses of
nicotine to help people quit smoking tobacco.

An advocate for the use of medicinal marijuana criticized the patch
concept as another in a long line of less-effective alternatives to
smoking the drug.

" The American Cancer Society has always been on record against people
smoking tobacco and marijuana, " said Allen St. Pierre, executive
director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
in Washington, D.C. " This is a way to assuage opponents."

Previous research included pills, suppositories, eye and ear drops and
even talk of creating a marijuana vapor, said St. Pierre. Smoking,
however, is a faster way to get the drug into the system, an important
factor in controlling nausea.

The National Institutes of Health and an affiliate of the National
Academy of Sciences have concluded that the active ingredients in
marijuana can ease the pain, nausea and vomiting of cancer and AIDS.

A half-dozen states have offered ballot measures to legalize marijuana
as medication, but the drug is banned by federal law and doctors
hesitate to prescribe it, even in states that legalized its medical
use.

The Justice Department is challenging voter-approved laws in Alaska,
Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington. Maine voters approved a
medical marijuana law last year and the law went into effect last month.