First
Federally
Sponsored
Med
Mj
Research
Research
Approved
10/11/97
Dr. Donald Abrams of San Francisco General Hospital, whose previous medical marijuana protocols have languished for years due to DEA refusal to allow him access to government marijuana, will finally begin to explore the effects of the plant on AIDS patients. His most recent proposal was approved this week by the National Institutes of Health. 63 patients will each spend 25 days in specially-ventilated hospital rooms to determine what effects the use of smoked marijuana has on HIV positive patients currently taking protease inhibitors, the most promising of the new AIDS treatments. A second group of subjects will receive the synthetic THC pill Marinol, while a third group will receive placebos. "Approval of this study was a long time coming," Dave Fratello, spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights told The Week Online. "Clearly federal officials got a black eye during last year's Prop. 215 campaign when their stalling of Dr. Abrams' study was exposed." Fratello added, "It's also clear that this year's debate on SB 535, a bill to create a center for medical marijuana research at the University of California, has influenced the decision to get this AIDS study going." Even so, it was a change in the focus of the study which made its objective "acceptable" to the Drug War establishment. Allan St. Pierre, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws (NORML) told The Week Online, "For all of the government's ranting about the need for science in the medical marijuana debate, Dr. Abrams' study is only going forward because he changed its primary objective. That objective now states that the research will be looking to document adverse reactions brought on by marijuana in patients taking protease inhibitors. Only secondarily will the study be looking for increased caloric intake among the subjects." "It's ridiculous," he added, "that with all of the doctors, scientists and patients coming forward to profess the validity of marijuana's medicinal properties, the government is still playing Drug War politics with the lives of citizens. Sad." For background on the Abrams study, see <http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n3/07316abr.html>.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
