NEW MARIJUANA STUDIES URGED BY EXPERT PANEL

By PAUL RECER

AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) A group of experts is recommending strongly that the
National Institutes of Health "take another look" at granting funds for
research into the medical uses of marijuana, according to sources.

In a report to be released Friday, a committee of medical experts
conclude there is sufficient evidence that marijuana can be useful for
treating severe weight loss, nausea and glaucoma and that the NIH should be
more flexible in its policies about marijuana research.

"Our panel concluded that marijuana may be useful in treating several
conditions, but much of the evidence is anecdotal and needs to be confirmed
in properly controlled studies," said Dr. Paul Palmberg, a professor of
ophthalmology at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

He said panel members were asserting that "NIH review panels need to
take another look" at funding of marijuana research and at making the weed
more available for medical studies.

The NIH funds much of the nation's medical research, but has only rarely
provided grants for studying the therapeutic uses of marijuana. NIH
officials said in February that the experts' report could have an influence
on agency responses to proposals for marijuana research.

Palmberg said the report "will have no bombshells." It merely reinforces
conclusions announced by the committee at a news conference following a
threeday meeting in February.

"I think we all felt that there was enough reason to reopen
investigations into the medical uses of marijuana and it is my
understanding that that is what the final report cleared by Dr. (William
T.) Beaver will say," said Palmberg.

Beaver, a professor at the Georgetown University of School of Medicine,
was chairman of the experts panel. He could not be reached for comment.

Palmberg said the committee generally felt that even if marijuana has no
proven medical benefit, "then people need to know that, too," but that this
conclusion is possible only with more research.

The panel of experts was assembled by the NIH early this year to review
all published research on medical uses of marijuana and take testimony from
patients and doctors experienced in the medical use of the drug.

Reports reviewed by the committee suggested that:

Marijuana can control nausea for some cancer patients who do not
respond to conventional antinausea drugs.

Smoking marijuana helps to combat wasting, the chronic loss of weight
and appetite that is common among AIDS patients.

Smoking marijuana helps relieve eye pressure in patients with
glaucoma, a common cause of blindness caused by the excess build up of
fluid inside the eyeball.

Dr. Alan Leshner, head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse,
organized the panel of experts after California and Arizona enacted laws
that allow medical uses of marijuana in specific circumstances.

Those new laws prompted the Clinton administration to warn that doctors
who prescribe marijuana can lose their federal license to prescribe other
drugs. One California doctor already has been warned by the Justice
Department that he is under investigation.

The federal action has prompted a lawsuit by doctors in California.

Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that favors
relaxation of strict federal controls of marijuana, said the five months it
has taken to prepare the report is a "stall tactic" by the Clinton
administration.

He said statements by the panelists in February clearly favored more
marijuana research and that the report could have been released much
earlier.