GOVERNMENT TO SELL POT TO MORE SCIENTISTS FOR MEDICINAL STUDIES

Despite intense interest in the medical benefits of marijuana, few
scientists are studying it, because the government has always required that
such work be paid for by scarce grant money from the National Institutes of
Health.

That changed Friday when the Clinton administration eased the requirement,
announcing that it would sell government-grown marijuana to scientists
whose research is paid for by state or county governments or private sources.

The decision was issued as a regulation by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse and is supported by Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who as director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy has been the administration's most
ardent opponent of the legalization of medical marijuana.

"Before, the problem was if you wanted marijuana, you had to not only show
that it was high-quality research, you had to show that it was more
important than other competing applications for NIH funding," said Chuck
Blanchard, chief counsel for McCaffrey's office. "Now, as long as you are
willing to show that it is high-quality research and also provide your own
funding, you can have access to medical marijuana."

Under the ruling, marijuana studies still will be reviewed for their
scientific merit, but it will become easier for state and local governments
to pay for the research. Experts and government officials hope the studies
could some day lead to the development of a new delivery system for
marijuana, such as an inhaler, that would enable patients to benefit from
its active ingredients without suffering the toxic effects of the smoke.

Some officials already say they hope to take advantage of the new rule.

"This news today gives us great hope," said Mike Nevin, a member of the San
Mateo County Board of Supervisors. About a year ago, he said, his board
allocated $500,000 for studies of marijuana in cancer and AIDS patients.
"We are hoping the federal government will grant us the ability to do this
study," he said, "and we are willing to pay."

For years, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has paid a farmer at the
University of Mississippi to grow marijuana for research, primarily studies
on addiction. The government also provides the drug to eight patients under
a "compassionate use" program authorized by the Food and Drug
Administration, but that program has been closed to new participants since
1992. In recent years, as interest grew in using marijuana as a medicine,
scientists have tried, with limited success, to persuade the National
Institutes of Health to pay for the studies. Only three studies have been
approved; among them is one being conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams of the
University of California at San Francisco, who said it took him five years
to obtain approval to study marijuana in AIDS patients.

And even then, Abrams had to mask his true research interest; although he
wanted to examine the effects of marijuana on the weight loss associated
with AIDS, he pitched the study as one that would look at the potentially
toxic interactions between marijuana and standard AIDS medications. "We
designed a study that would appeal to the group of people funding the
grant," he said.

Friday's decision comes two months after an exhaustive study by the
Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences,
concluded that the active ingredients in marijuana, called cannabinoids,
appear useful for treating pain, nausea and the severe weight loss
associated with AIDS. Two years ago, a review by NIH officials reached a
similar conclusion.

So far, there is only one cannabinoid-based drug on the market, Marinol,
manufactured by Unimed Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill. But some
patients complain that the Marinol pills are too potent, leading
researchers to theorize that an inhaler, similar to those used by asthma
patients, might be a more effective form of treatment.

Recognizing that such a method might take years to develop, the Institute
of Medicine report recommended that patients who did not respond to other
therapy be permitted to smoke marijuana. But the regulation issued Friday
said the government does not intend to approve "single-patient requests for
marijuana," because they do not "produce useful scientific information."

Advocates for legalizing marijuana as medicine had both praise and
criticism for Friday's decision. "It is a tiny step forward, but far too
tiny," said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, which
backed initiatives in California and Arizona to make marijuana legal for
medical use.