cannabisnews.com: Marijuana-Like Drug is Disappointment in Study Marijuana-Like Drug is Disappointment in Study Posted by FoM on January 27, 2002 at 13:10:01 PT By Maura Lerner Source: Star-Tribune A marijuana-like drug was less effective than standard treatment in helping cancer patients fight appetite loss and weight loss, researchers at the Mayo Clinic say. Their study disappointed scientists who had hoped to find a better way of treating a problem that plagues more than half of patients with advanced cancer. The researchers compared Marinol, a synthetic version of THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana, with a drug that's routinely used to curb appetite loss, megestrol acetate, in 469 people with advanced cancer. They found that 49 percent of those taking Marinol reported improved appetite, compared with 75 percent on megestrol. In addition, only 3 percent of the Marinol group gained weight, compared with 11 percent of the megestrol group."These findings should dampen enthusiasm for using marijuana derivatives for this purpose," said Dr. Aminah Jatoi, a Mayo clinic oncologist and an author of the study, which appeared in this month's Journal of Clinical Oncology. She said this was the first such study of its kind. However, it's not likely to sway supporters of medical marijuana use. "What's striking about the study is it didn't use marijuana . . . so it certainly tells you nothing about marijuana itself," said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the Washington-Based Marijuana Policy Project. He said marijuana contains 60 active chemicals in addition to THC, while Marinol, the brand name for the drug dronabinol, contains just THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). "We think it's very important that these sorts of studies on Marinol not be used erroneously to rule out the efficacy of marijuana," he said. But Jatoi said that wasn't their goal. "We did this study hoping that something would have been better than the standard treatment," she said.A spokesman for Gov. Jesse Ventura, who has called for more research on medical use of marijuana, said the study probably would not affect Ventura's position. At Ventura's request, the Minnesota Health Department sponsored a forum last April to encourage such research. Paul Moore said Ventura had not seen the Mayo study, but "if they're doing studies, that's great as far as he's concerned. He'll just be happy there's a dialogue going on."-- Staff writer Jill Burcum contributed to this report.Complete Title: Marijuana-Like Drug is Disappointment in Mayo StudySource: Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN) Author: Maura LernerPublished: January 26, 2002Copyright: 2002 Star Tribune Contact: opinion startribune.com Website: http://www.startribune.com/ Related Articles & Web Sites:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Medical Marijuana Information Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htmVentura Disappointed in Bush Administration Stancehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11598.shtmlGov. Ventura Supports Medical Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9265.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #3 posted by bruce42 on January 27, 2002 at 23:04:00 PT hmmm... "He said marijuana contains 60 active chemicals in addition to THC, while Marinol, the brand name for the drug dronabinol, contains just THC (tetrahydrocannabinol)."60? At least. The government and big pharms insist on research leading to MJ in pill form- this will never work. There are HUNDREDS of compounds in MJ and we know little to nothing about how a good portion of them actually interact with us and each other. Trying to package MJ in a bottle is stupidity; madness really. I can't begin to imagine how long it would take or how much it would cost to study each and every compound and test their various interactions and effects.Research needs to focus on developing strains that have high medicinal value and developing risk reduction devices that make consumption virtually harmless. Modern medicine is really, really, stupid sometimes. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by lookinside on January 27, 2002 at 14:35:27 PT: agreed... When my wife was going through trying "everything else", the last pain medication she tried was Marinol...It was less effective than some of the other prescription meds, difficult to judge dosage effectively, and just plain inferior to whole Cannabis....She then got her recommendation and is using far fewer pills than before... [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on January 27, 2002 at 13:45:18 PT Marinol sucks, let the truth be told I recently had a chance to compare Marinol with marijuana cookies and Marinol pretty much sucks in comparison. It is medium okay for pain but not that strong against inflammation. It also doesn't help sleep very much at all. In fact it made me feel a little wired sometimes. But journalists don't understand science so they have no ability to understand why Marinol sucks and why the suckage of Marinol strengthens not weakens the case for marijuana itself as a medicine. It's amazing the way the extra cannabinoids in marijuana interact with the THC. You can really experience this by comparing eating marijuana with taking Marinol. THC all by itself is not that great. Well I mean you'd think that our society could figure this out, given that no junkie has yet chosen to perfect the technique of injecting pure THC straight into a vein. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment