MARIJUANA MOVES HIGHER ON MEDICAL RESEARCH LIST

WASHINGTON -- 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 yesterday when the Clinton administration eased the
requirement, announcing that it would sell government-grown marijuana
to privately funded scientists.

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 will still 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 so far; 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.

Yesterday'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.

"We have had several pretty distinguished groups now say that
cannabinoids, not smoked marijuana, may have some real potential
medical usage," said Dr. Steven Gust, special assistant to the
director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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 new
regulation said the government does not intend to approve
"single-patient requests for marijuana," because they do not "produce
use useful scientific information."