NEW DRUG COULD AFFECT DEBATE ON MEDICAL POT

Medical-marijuana advocates are celebrating the expected approval of a
marijuana-based pain reliever in Britain but remain cautious about any
impact the move will have on marijuana-policy reform in the United
States.

With a Republican-controlled Congress and White House, the chances
that the drug, called Sativex, will earn quick U.S. approval are slim,
said Steve Fox, a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, a
pro-medical-marijuana group.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who introduced H.R. 2233, the States'
Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, said he does not expect British
approval of the drug to help passage of his bill.

"This issue is more political than scientific," Frank said.

H.R. 2233 would give states the power to determine their own
medical-marijuana rules.

Sativex, created by the British company GW Pharmaceuticals, has been
heralded by many in the medical-marijuana community as a vast
improvement over Marinol, a THC-based drug currently legally available
in the United States. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the naturally
occurring active ingredient in the cannabis plant.

Sativex is intended to relieve pain in patients suffering from chronic
illness -- the reason many patients have resorted to smoking
marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law. Instead of only
THC, Sativex includes almost all of the medically beneficial compounds
present in smoked marijuana. Delivered in a sublingual spray, Sativex
also takes effect quicker than Marinol, a pill that must be digested.

Dr. Andrew Mattison, co-director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis
Research at the University of California at San Diego, said his group
has an application pending with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
to start U.S. clinical trials on a drug similar to Sativex.
FDA-approved clinical tests are a common first step before FDA
authorization of a drug for sale to the public, Mattison said.

Some activists hope that U.S. approval of Sativex would force policy
changes regarding other forms of marijuana.

Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said that if
the FDA were to approve Sativex but not smoked marijuana, "that would
be like saying you can buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but we'll put
you in jail if we catch you with coffee beans." The FDA would not
comment on Sativex or other marijuana-based drugs.

Mirken said most members of Congress have not yet given much thought
to the medical-marijuana issue, not wanting to involve themselves in
the controversy surrounding it. He said that the U.S. government has
ignored scientific research on medical marijuana for years and that he
hopes British action will force U.S. officials to take a second look.

"It's an absurd notion that the federal government is turning a blind
eye to this," said Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House's Office
of National Drug Control Policy. "If you can show [a marijuana-based
drug] is effective by the standards of modern science, then it can be
licensed and it can be controlled."

Refusing to comment specifically on Sativex, Riley said that if a drug
eased patients' suffering and passed scientific muster, he would
expect it to receive the administration's approval.

"It's entirely possible that the cannabis plant contains elements that
are useful for medical purposes," Riley said. "But our regulatory
process prevents dangerous drugs from entering the
marketplace."

Riley also said some marijuana advocacy groups are using patients'
suffering as a means toward gaining full legalization of smoked
marijuana in the United States.

"They seized on medical marijuana as a backdoor way of achieving their
goals," he said.

But U.S. approval of a drug like Sativex could also have unintended
consequences for medical marijuana advocates.

Members of Congress who are leaning toward easing restrictions on
whole, smoked marijuana may retract their support if a non-smoked
alternative were available, according to Allen St. Pierre, spokesman
for the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws. Endorsing a
spray, like Sativex, is politically safer than supporting smoked
marijuana, St. Pierre said.