cannabisnews.com: Medical Promise in Marijuana Patch 





Medical Promise in Marijuana Patch 
Posted by FoM on January 30, 2000 at 08:36:04 PT
By Winnie Hu
Source: New York Times
Dr. Audra Stinchcomb says she has never smoked marijuana, but that does not prevent colleagues at the Albany College of Pharmacy from inquiring about her "pot patch" or "doobie derm" whenever they can. Her two-year effort to research and develop a medical marijuana patch that would release the drug's active ingredients through the skin has inspired more one-liners than she can recall. The patch is intended to be used by cancer patients for relief from nausea, vomiting and other side effects of chemotherapy. 
"Everybody always comes in and has a new joke for me," said Dr. Stinchcomb, 34, an assistant professor at the pharmacy college and a leading researcher on the ways that chemicals are absorbed through the skin. "I can't help it. It's amusing." But Dr. Stinchcomb's research is being taken seriously by doctors and scientific researchers as evidence increasingly suggests that chemicals in marijuana have health benefits. A report last year by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the chemicals, called cannabinoids, relieve pain and nausea, although the report warned that marijuana smoke was even more toxic than tobacco smoke. Earlier this month, Dr. Stinchcomb's proposal for a marijuana patch was awarded a $361,000 grant from the American Cancer Society. "I think this is a bold step for us," said Don Distasio, the cancer society's chief operating officer in New York and New Jersey, who acknowledged that the proposal was controversial but said it had been screened by three panels of doctors, scientists and staff members as part of the application process. The project has also been approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which regulates experiments with illegal drugs. The patch would use synthetic cannabinoids created in a laboratory and is years away from being tested on people. But it has piqued interest because it offers a compromise of sorts in the long-running battle over whether to legalize marijuana. Voters in seven states and the District of Columbia have endorsed the medical benefits of marijuana through referendums, but many government officials balk at making the drug more accessible, which they say would be the first step in making it available for general use. Dr. Eric Voth, chairman of the International Drug Strategy Institute, an organization in Omaha that reviews drug policies, said the patch could pass along the therapeutic effects of marijuana without making the drug itself available. "It's no more a marijuana patch than a nicotine patch is a tobacco patch," Dr. Voth said. "I'm all for trying to find pure, reliable medicine, but I do not support the idea of smoking weed for medicinal purposes." Those who want to legalize marijuana also see the benefit of developing a patch. "It is yet another acknowledgment, even if it is somewhat muted, by the government that marijuana is a valuable medicine," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Dr. Stinchcomb prefers to stay clear of the political debate. She describes her research on cannabinoids in clinical terms, often referring to charts and models to make her point. "There's an extremely serious side to this, because it's treating cancer patients," she said. "I want the project to be perceived that way." Dr. Stinchcomb said she became interested in testing cannabinoids after reading medical literature suggesting their potential health benefits. She had already received a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to research a patch for another drug, naltrexone, which blocks the effects of opiates and alcohol. Although Dr. Stinchcomb continues to work on both patches, only the marijuana patch has garnered widespread interest. She has received a stream of e-mail messages from pharmaceutical companies offering equipment and chemicals, and phone calls from cancer patients pleading for help from a marijuana patch. During a recent interview in her office, Dr. Stinchcomb paused midsentence to answer one such plea from a caller. She explained that the patch was still being developed and referred the person to the American Cancer Society. "I feel bad there is nothing that I can do personally yet," she said. The interest in Dr. Stinchcomb's work is unusual for her school, which is often overshadowed by larger institutions. The Albany College of Pharmacy, founded in 1881, has just 660 students in one building. Elated school officials have been busy collecting news articles about Dr. Stinchcomb from around the country and responding to e-mail messages from proud alumni. But along with the attention came more jokes. Her colleagues have already picked out a shape for the patch (a marijuana leaf) and suggested hiring President Clinton as the pitchman because, after all, he did not inhale. As Eric Hobson, a professor of humanities and social sciences at the college, put it, "It's perfect monologue material." ALBANYPublished: January 30, 2000Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company Related Articles & Web Site:The IOM Reporthttp://books.nap.edu/html/marimed/ Research Begins on Marijuana Patch - 1/25/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4468.shtmlPueblo Resident Does Marijuana Patch Research - 1/24/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4456.shtmlMarijuana Patch Research For Cancer Patients - 1/19/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4385.shtml Researchers Test Marijuana Patch - 1/20/2000http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4395.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on January 30, 2000 at 09:41:28 PT
How far might we have come as a people
if we didn't have to drag along the recalcitrant braying jackasses and closet knuckledraggers?'Voters in seven states and the District of Columbia have endorsed the medical benefits of marijuana through referendums, but many government officials balk at making the drug more accessible, which they say would be the first step in making it available for general use. Dr. Eric Voth, chairman of the International Drug Strategy Institute, an organization in Omaha that reviews drug policies, said the patch could pass along the therapeutic effects of marijuana without making the drug itself available. "It's no more a marijuana patch than a nicotine patch is a tobacco patch," Dr. Voth said. "I'm all for trying to find pure, reliable medicine, but I do not support the idea of smoking weed for medicinal purposes." While Mr. Voth pontificates about his personal neo-Puritanical prejudices against allowing people to feel good, millions of cancer and AIDS patients in this country are suffering needlessly *right now*, and that suffering can be quickly alleviated by the raw drug.But that's the whole point, you see: the pharmaceutical companies want to be the only ones to benefit from legal cannabis products. And so they lean upon their friends in the FDA, NIDA, and ONDCP to keep the prohibition going. To keep it from being 'available for general use'.Money, it's all about money. While people suffer horribly.
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