cannabisnews.com: Will IOM Report Encourage Clinical Trials?





Will IOM Report Encourage Clinical Trials?
Posted by FoM on May 19, 1999 at 07:15:27 PT
Source: The Scientist
As an issue on the cusp of science and social policy, the value of marijuana in medicine refuses to go away. For several years, researchers wishing to undertake clinical trials of marijuana's medical effects on humans have claimed that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are stonewalling by insisting that the protocols are unacceptable.
Those organizations complain that several proponents of clinical trials have failed to understand the complexity of the issue and have been unwilling to change their protocols. ONDCP has warned physicians in states whose voters have approved initiatives that back the concept of prescribing marijuana for medical purposes that they risk losing their licenses if they follow that advice. A new report from the Institute of Medicine should define the issue more tightly.1 It may also stimulate clinical trials somewhat different from those advocated to date. The report concludes that cannabinoids, marijuana's active components, have potential applicability for some human symptoms. However, it also suggests that those components should be delivered by a mechanism other than inhaling smoke. The report recommends that any clinical trials of smoked marijuana should be short, approved by institutional review boards, and applied only to patients most likely to benefit from the treatment. Click the above link to read the whole article!News story found by Cryote!Thanks Cryote!
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