SAN MATEO PLANS RESEARCH ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

County to study drug's effects on seriously ill

As authorities statewide are snuffing out pot clubs, San Mateo County
embarked on an ambitious plan yesterday to provide medical marijuana and
study whether it helps as much as proponents say.

Officials see the proposed three-year study as a way to provide marijuana
to seriously ill people without the legal complications faced by so-called
cannabis clubs, which are facing troubles throughout the state.

Supervisors voted 3 to 1 to spend $50,000 to design a research project that
would take the issue out of politics and courtrooms and into the
laboratory.

Approval would be needed first from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
and possibly other federal regulatory agencies.

``We see this as the best and only alternative to legitimize the use of
medical marijuana,'' said Margaret Taylor, the county's health director.
``This is about taking care of people with medical problems.''

Supervisor Mike Nevin said he hopes the study, if it indeed shows the drug
relieves suffering, would lead to changes in state and federal laws.

The county can take the lead countrywide by studying its effects while
making it available to people in need, he said.

Putting together a proposal for a clinical study is expected to take
several months. Taylor said it would then be submitted to the FDA.

A research project is an attempt to deal with the uncertainties left by the
1996 passage of Proposition 215, which legalized the use of pot if
recommended by a doctor. But the initiative said little about regulating
the supply and did nothing to change federal law that bans its use.

Cannabis clubs opened in several cities after Proposition 215 passed. But
the courts and law enforcement agencies have shut many as violating state
or federal law.

San Jose's medical marijuana center closed its doors Friday.

In San Mateo County, supervisors last year turned down a proposal to open a
privately run pot club. Instead, the county looked into distributing pot
through county-run pharmacies, an idea that failed because its legality was
questionable.

Proponents say marijuana relieves pain from cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and
other diseases and can help perk up appetites.

Taylor said she knows firsthand the medical benefits of marijuana because a
co-worker smoked pot to ease the nausea and pain from her breast cancer
before she died.

Dr. Scott Morrow, the county's health officer, said the proposed study
would cost at least $500,000 and involve an as-yet undetermined number of
people, although up to 2,000 might qualify. How people would be chosen and
where officials would get the pot are some of the many issues that remain
to be worked out, he said.

The plan is to publish the results of the study in a peer-reviewed medical
journal. Morrow said there's plenty of anecdotal evidence but little
scientific research into pot's medical benefits.

A panel convened last year by the National Institutes of Health determined
there are too few scientific studies to determine marijuana's therapeutic
benefits. The panel recommended that further study is justified.

The county has set aside $150,000 for a clinical trial in the fiscal
1998-99 budget and $200,000 for 1999-2000.

If approved by federal officials, Taylor said, local officials would
solicit federal and private grants.

Supervisor Tom Huening cast the lone dissent, saying he supported the idea
but was concerned about the cost.

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle

Checked-by: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)