US MOVES TOWARD MARIJUANA RESEARCH

WASHINGTON (AP) Responding to pressure from scientists and voters, the
Clinton administration loosened restraints Friday on medical marijuana
research. The move is expected to prompt more studies to see if the drug
helps people with AIDS, cancer or eye disease.

Scientists with private grants will now be able to get legal marijuana from
the government's supply grown on a small plot of land in Mississippi to
make sure it's all the same strength.

Previously, only scientists who had won federal grants had access to that
marijuana. And only a few such federal studies have been approved.

"We all thought the time was right" for the new guidelines, said Steven W.

Gust, a special assistant to the director of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The new guidelines were created after Cabinet-level discussions among
agencies involved in America's war on drugs, including the Department of
Health and Human Services, NIH's parent agency, plus the Justice
Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House Office
of National Drug Control Policy, Gust said.

The drug control office, headed by Barry McCaffrey, favors marijuana
studies "as long as they pass a peer review process to make sure the
research is good science," said Charles Blanchard, the office's chief counsel.

McCaffrey has opposed actions by states to permit medical uses of
marijuana, claiming that would prejudge serious scientific research. Two
recent expert reports recommended more research on marijuana, citing
evidence of its possible benefits to some patients.

The University of Mississippi grows the government-approved marijuana on
1.8 acres at a closely guarded site. A crop is harvested on alternate
years. So far that has been more than enough to supply the few approved
researchers, Gust said.

If the new guidelines do prompt more research, the agency is prepared to
grow more marijuana, opening up additional fields if necessary and planting
every year instead of alternate years, Gust said.

Under the new guidelines, privately funded researchers conducting
"scientifically valid investigations" reviewed and approved by the National
Institutes of Health will be allowed to purchase the government marijuana.
The price for Uncle Sam's pot has not been set, and the drug is not
expected to be ready for researchers until December.

Many cancer, AIDS and glaucoma patients already use marijuana, often bought
illegally on the street. At least six states have passed measures to permit
the drug's medicinal use if prescribed by a physician.

Federal law, however, bans the drug. And many doctors are reluctant to
approve it for their patients because of the controversy over its benefits.

The tough federal stance on medical marijuana prompted some doctors in

California to get a court injunction to block what they feared would be
federal reprisals for prescribing marijuana to patients under that state's
compassionate-use laws.

Experts found in two recent reports that marijuana for some patients is
effective in relieving pain, nausea and vomiting caused by cancer and AIDS.
Some glaucoma patients also smoke the drug to help relieve pressure inside
the eye.

A 1997 report by a National Institutes of Health panel concluded that there
is enough evidence about marijuana's benefits to merit further research.

Earlier this year, the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National
Academy of Sciences, also urged scientific research. The institute also
favored compassionate permits for use of the drug by patients who were not
helped by other medications.

Four federally financed research projects are ongoing, NIDA officials said.
Three other proposals failed to get federal money last year.

Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project said his group is pleased the
guidelines will encourage more research, but he said the action will not
help patients in pain who need the drug now.

"We're very disappointed that they failed to approve single-patient,
compassionate use, as the Institute of Medicine had recommended," Thomas said.