Panel To Recommend Pot Research

WASHINGTON (AP) Marijuana should be scientifically tested on patients to
determine if smoking the weed can help sick people combat nausea and other
serious conditions, a panel of experts concluded in a report released today.

The eightmember committee of experts said that scientific study of
marijuana's medical value should be separated "from the societal debate
over the potential harmful effects of nonmedical marijuana use." The
committee called on the National Institutes of Health to "facilitate"
grants studying marijuana use in treating patients.

"All decisions on the ultimate usefulness of a medical intervention are
based on a benefit/risk calculation," the report said. "Marijuana should be
no exception to this generally accepted principle."

For treatment of some conditions "marijuana looks promising enough to
recommend that there be new controlled studies," committee chairman Dr.
William Beaver of Georgetown University School of Medicine is quoted as
saying in the report.

The report said marijuana should be studied for its effect on improving
appetite among patients with severe weight loss; controlling nausea and
vomiting for cancer patients; controlling some neurological disorders, such
as epilepsy; for pain relief; and to treat glaucoma, a serious and
progressive eye disorder.

"NIH should consider relevant administrative mechanisms to facilitate grant
applications in each of these areas," the report said.

NIH director Dr. Harold Varmus said in a statement that his agency "is open
to receiving grant applications for studies of the medical efficacy of
marijuana."

Such applications, said Varmus, will undergo "our normal scientific review"
and will be funded if they meet accepted standards and are considered of
more value than competing grant applications.

The NIH funds much of the nation's medical research, but only rarely has
provided grants for studying the therapeutic uses of marijuana.

Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project, a group favoring more medical
use of the weed, said the report should prompt legislation that would
permit such use of the drug now, without waiting for research to satisfy
"rigid" federal requirements.

"If we wait ... thousands of patients will be arrested and sent to prison
in the meantime," he said.

The committee of private doctors and nurses was selected and sponsored by
the National Institutes of Health. The group met for two days in February
to review studies on medical uses of marijuana and to hear testimony from
patients and other doctors. The report is described as "a compilation of
the opinions" of the committee.

Among the report's conclusions:

Dronabinol, a pill that contains THC, the major active ingredient in smoked
marijuana, "does not full satisfy the need to evaluate" medical uses of the
smoked cannabis leaf. The experts said there are other compounds in
marijuana smoke that may be medically useful and that the body absorbs
smoked chemicals differently from oral drugs.

Smoked marijuana, because it contains a variety of combustion compounds,
can damage the lungs. There is a possibility that frequent use can damage
the immune system. The committee recommended the development of an
inhalation device that delivers pure THC to the lungs in a controlled
dosage and free of the dangerous combustion compounds.

There is some evidence that marijuana is useful in treating spasticity
caused by multiple sclerosis and in treatment of some forms of epilepsy.
But the committee said there have been no scientificallyvalid studies to
support this evidence.

Some studies have shown that smoked marijuana is effective for some
patients in relieving nausea cause by cancer chemotherapy. But the
committee noted that since the 1980s when those studies were conducted, a
number of new antinausea drugs have been developed.

There is evidence that marijuana may improve the appetite and help patients
gain weight. This could be lifesaving for AIDS patients who develop
wasting, a severe weight loss condition. However, the committee noted that
any smoking, including marijuana, increases the risk of pneumonia in HIV
patients. It also noted that dronabinol, the THC pill, also is effective
against wasting.

Smoked marijuana is effective in lowering pressure inside the eyeballs of
some patients with glaucoma. But the committee said the weed also drops
blood pressure and this could compromise blood flow to the optic nerve and
damage vision.

Copyright Los Angeles Times