MEETING EXAMINES MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON, DC -- A two-day conference to examine the potential medical
uses of marijuana or its active components began here Tuesday. The meeting
is sponsored by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a private, nonprofit group
that provides health policy advice.

"Any move to approve marijuana (for regulation) must be aided by good
clinical studies," Dr. J. Richard Crout, former director of the Bureau of
Drugs at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday at the
Prospects for Cannabinoid Drug Development conference. This was the IOM's
third and final meeting and was designed to help the Institute gather
information for its study, Medical Use of Marijuana: Assessment of the
Science Base, which will be issued in December 1998.

Scientifically, it's difficult to conduct cannabis studies in humans, said
Dr. Billy R. Martin of the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. "The
effect of cannabis varies from person to person. This makes science
difficult to create a neat (cannabis study) model such as the opioid pain
model in humans," said Martin.

"There are ways to legitimize street marijuana for medicinal use," Crout
said. This would include removing marijuana from the controlled substance
act, removing penalties for possession, and changing Drug Enforcement
Agency policies.

However, since marijuana is a controlled substance, some of the changes
would require congressional action, Crout noted. "This would still not
remove the drug's stigma, the physician's role remains unclear" with use of
medicinal marijuana, and the product quality may be difficult to define,
Crout added,

Aside from political concerns, a key obstacle for pharmaceutical companies
is the small market potential for medicinal marijuana, commented Dr. Robert
E. Dudley of Unimed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Drug
companies need to market to at least 100 million patients to make research
and development costs feasible, he said.

Marinol was approved by the FDA in 1985. Manufactured by Unimed, Marinol is
the only synthetic delta 9-THC product marketed worldwide, Dudley said. It
is used as an anti-emetic and appetite stimulant. The company petitioned
the FDA in 1995 to change the drug's schedule status, thus increasing
patient access to Marinol. The company expects
to learn of the decision sometime this year, Dudley said.

An IOM statement explains that while the meeting is being held to gather
information, "...no conclusions are being drawn at this time."

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