TEAM FOCUSES ON BENEFITS OF MARIJUANA

CLEMSON - A Clemson University team of researchers is looking at ways to
get the medical benefits found in marijuana without getting bogged down in
the politics of the drug.

Chemist John Huffman is leading the team, working on synthetic versions of
the substances that provide the same medical benefits of marijuana without
side effects such as an unwanted high or lung damage.

Marijuana can be smoked legitimately for medical benefits, including relief
of pain and nausea from a variety of ailments, in 11 states. But three
years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the drug is subject to federal
anti-narcotic laws.

Huffman and his team have been working for 20 years on federally funded
research into cannabinoids, the chemicals in marijuana that confer its
potency in the brain.

The idea is to pinpoint what in cannabinoids causes the high felt by
smokers so the synthetic molecules would not contain that trait, but they
would still have the medicinal effects.

One piece of the puzzle is the substance THC, which controls nausea but
produces the high.