SERIOUS MEDICINE

Troy Morris thinks it's high time that medical marijuana was taken
seriously, and he thinks he can help.

Even though 14 states, including Oregon, have passed laws recognizing
the therapeutic use of marijuana, the drug suffers from a split
personality. Supporters tout its ability to ease chronic pain,
suppress nausea, calm muscle spasms and boost appetite. On the other
hand, it's also an illicit substance that's illegal under federal law
and remains weighed down by counterculture connotations from the era
of long hair, short skirts and free love.

Aside from its outlaw image, one of the most vexing problems for
medical marijuana is consistency. There are literally countless
strains of the weed out there, and each one has different properties
and effects.

That makes it nearly impossible for doctors and patients to predict
exactly how the drug will impact symptoms from one batch to the next.
And with varietal names like Lemon Zest, Train Wreck and Fog Cutter,
it can be hard for physicians - or the general public - to take seriously.

Morris is one of several investors in a Corvallis startup called
m-Research that aims to solve that problem. By standardizing
information about the effects of individual strains, Morris and his
partners hope to help medicinal pot drop its "Reefer Madness" baggage
and finally take its place alongside mainstream pharmaceuticals.

"The information around marijuana is highly volatile. There's a lot of
people who have opinions on both sides," said Morris, who has a
background in chemical engineering. "What we decided to do was start
collecting data."

M-Research takes a two-pronged approach to that task.

First, it uses chromatography to analyze the chemical components of
each strain, which can vary enormously. While most people think of THC
- - tetrahydrocannabinol - as the active ingredient in marijuana, a 1999
study by the Institute of Medicine found 66 different cannabinoid
compounds in the plant, including 11 variant forms of THC.

Next, m-Research assembles a "tasting group" of 12 to 18
state-licensed medical marijuana patients to evaluate the effects of a
particular strain on their symptoms, alertness, appetite, activity
level, mood and so forth. Each member of the group fills out a
seven-page questionnaire, and the results are collated to determine
the most consistent responses.

The information from both tests is combined to produce an "m-Scale"
rating of the strain. The five-part m-Scale rating includes a number
that ranks the marijuana on an "activity scale" from 1 to 9, based on
how sedate or energetic it makes the user feel. It also includes a
combination of four color-coded letters or symbols that indicate other
major properties of the strain - strong versus mild, long-or
short-lasting, depressive or euphoric, appetite-boosting,
nausea-suppressing and so on.

The company plans to make m-Scale information available for free to
patients, physicians and dispensaries. Where it hopes to eventually
make money is by charging growers to register their strains.

"We have to establish a language" for talking about the effects of
medical marijuana, Morris said. "And that language is m-Scale."

Market opportunity

There's no doubt that finding a way to quantify the medicinal
properties of different marijuana breeds would be a big step forward
for the drug's therapeutic use, said Todd Dalotto, who sits on the
state's Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana.

"The medicine isn't currently in a standardized form that doctors
relate to pharmaceutical drugs," Dalotto said. "They don't know the
percentage of THC - most doctors don't even know there are other
active ingredients besides THC."

Dalotto calls the m-Scale "a good start" toward standardizing that
information and thinks the system is flexible enough to allow for
further development. But he cautioned that it will have to satisfy the
needs of a multitude of user groups.

"The medical community has to accept it, the patient community has to
accept it, and the growers, researchers and breeders have to be able
to work with it," he said.

The early response from growers appears to be positive.

Travis Erwin, a Corvallis breeder and state-licensed grower who has
registered some of his own award-winning strains with m-Research, said
the system generated an instant buzz at a recent hemp festival in
Southern Oregon.

"We took the m-Scale down there to see how growers would respond to
it," Erwin said, "and they wouldn't let us sit down for a minute."

Nor is there any doubt that whoever comes up with a successful system
for characterizing medical marijuana strains would be in a position to
make a lot of money. There are hundreds of thousands of marijuana
patients across the country, and fulfilling their needs stands to
become increasingly lucrative as legal restrictions on medical pot
become more relaxed.

Kris Hermes of Americans for Safe Access, a nonprofit group that
promotes acceptance of medical marijuana, points out that 14 states
and the District of Columbia already allow therapeutic use of the
weed, and similar laws are under consideration in eight more states.
In November, Oregonians will vote on Measure 74, which would create a
system of state-licensed dispensaries to distribute marijuana to
cardholding patients.

"This issue is not only not going away, but it is a public health
issue that many states want to address," Hermes said. "And it's only a
matter of time before the federal government will have to address it."

Eye on the prize

But m-Research is not the only venture out there hoping to be first to
market with a classification system.

"It's definitely something that's being sought after and pursued by a
number of commercial entities," said Allen St. Pierre, executive
director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws. "That is clearly where the marketplace logically should go."

Among the contenders, St. Pierre said, are large dispensaries such as
the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, Calif., which has all of its
marijuana lab-tested for potency and is involved in developing new
strains with highly specific medicinal properties.

He also pointed out that, in the underground economy where most
marijuana commerce takes place, there are only a couple of established
brands that currently carry much weight: High Times magazine and his
own organization, NORML.

If either should decide to lend its name to a certification method, he
suggested, it would carry considerable clout.

"Ultimately," St. Pierre said, "somebody will be trusted enough by the
government and others to put a stamp of approval on this so that
patients know what it is they're getting."

For Morris and his partners, the only question seems to be: Why not
us?

They've been working hard to get the word out, meeting with growers,
activists, physicians and patients up and down the West Coast. Trips
to other marijuana-friendly jurisdictions are in the works, and they
have an interview scheduled with that ultimate arbiter of cannabis
culture, High Times.

And they have no shortage of confidence in their product and their
business model.

"I trust myself to do this right," Morris said. "I'm trying to build
the Nike swoosh of marijuana."