cannabisnews.com: Patients May Get Pot for Study





Patients May Get Pot for Study
Posted by FoM on May 16, 2000 at 08:51:28 PT
Initial OK from regulators for AIDS program 
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
A plan by San Mateo County health officials to give marijuana to AIDS patients as part of a controlled study has won tentative approval from federal regulators. San Mateo County officials said they see no substantial hurdles to beginning one of the nation's few studies of the effects of medical marijuana. 
County health officials proposed the study after the 1996 passage of Proposition 215, the medical marijuana initiative. The study is seen as both a way to find out once and for all whether marijuana relieves pain and promotes appetite as well as proponents claim, and to discover if patients can follow a strict regimen and control access to the drug. If it proves effective, County Supervisor Mike Nevin said, the goal is to distribute marijuana to people with diseases such as cancer and glaucoma, chronic pain and other ailments. The conditional approval came from a panel of Department of Health and Human Services scientists who reviewed a request for ``research grade'' marijuana. County officials must strictly monitor the doses and the recipients of the marijuana to meet the government's conditions. ``With this approval, I think we can be distributing medical marijuana to people who need it within a few months,'' Nevin said. ``We can do everything they've asked of us.'' Nevin, a former San Francisco police officer, has been a leader in the county's efforts to study therapeutic effects of marijuana for people with chronic diseases. When approved, San Mateo County plans to distribute research- grade marijuana supplied by the federal government to 60 patients to relieve HIV-Associated Distal Symmetric Poly Neuropathy. Dennis Israelski, chief of infectious diseases and AIDS medicine at the San Mateo County Health Center, would lead the research effort. According to a letter to Israelski, federal officials are ``concerned primarily about issues of safety, size of doses, and diversion potential of take-home marijuana.'' To safeguard against the misuse of the drug, federal officials recommend providing patients with a maximum of five marijuana cigarettes per visit and obtaining frequent reports about the effects. Other suggestions include ways to ensure the marijuana is used properly and that it does not fall into the wrong hands. They want the county to establish a ``safety monitoring board'' to oversee any issues that arise. If Health and Human Services review committee approves the additional safety steps, ``the committee will then issue a formal approval for the provision of research-grade marijuana for use in your study,'' federal officials wrote Israelski. The county would also need approval from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration before the study could proceed, but Nevin said he is optimistic the county will receive their endorsement to begin the study. Marshall Wilson, Chronicle Staff WriterPeninsula:Tuesday, May 16, 2000 ©2000 San Francisco Chronicle Related Articles & Web Site:215 NOW!http://www.215now.comAMMAhttp://www.kubby.org/AMMA.htmlA Medical Mess http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5744.shtmlSF Ready to Issue ID Card For Medicinal Pot Usershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5722.shtmlCircuit Rules in Favor of Pot Users http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5712.shtmlLawmakers Part Ways in State's War on Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5682.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on May 17, 2000 at 10:39:46 PT:
Hopefuly realistic
CS, I am only too well aware of the Feds and their allies disposition towards ignoring studies they fund; I am showing my age here when I say that I remember very clearly the local newspaper printing the AP story about the Schaefer Commission's recommendations that cannabis be decriminalized... in 1972. At the time, I had been guardedly hopeful. With ol' Tricky Dick out of the way, his crimes exposed for all the world to see, and a more chastened government evincing more care in how it behaved towards it's own people, I had 'assumed' that academic integrity would win out over political ignorance and inertia. And, for a while in the 70s, it looked as if we would finally have a sane policy regarding cannabis slowly but surely formulating. Many of us assumed, to our eventual sorrow, that common sense would finally win out, and a nation that had been ruled by liars would finally start dealing with truths. But we all know the dangers of assuming anything.Because, just when things looked like they were coming up roses, then we had the Ray-gun-ite backlash. The forces of ignorance rallied and fought back. And the mess is even more bloody than ever. I don't know about the others reading this, but I received a very painful lesson concerning the nature of political power that only confirmed my suspicions about what actually is behind the push for the Drugwar. It never had the public weal at all in mind...only the consolidation of power. Shorn of all the rhetoric, that's what it has always been about. Now I know that the only way we are going to prevail is not by coming hat-in-hand to these slugs and begging pretty- please, use some sense, and treat the 'drug problem' in this country as a medical, not a law enforcement, one. No, these knuckledraggers understand only one thing; by holding a political cudgel over their heads, you guarantee their attention. By keeping the pressure on them, through means they can't circumvent, we are going to win it. Because when enough States call for MMJ - and 20% of the country already has, with more on the way - the Feds will have to fold. Or face a Constitutional crisis. One they'll lose.Yes, I am hopeful that in the long run we will win. We've got lots more hurdles to jump, and we're bound to have setbacks. The antis have all the money; we have brains and guts and little else. But all it takes is one face to face meeting between, say, McCaffrey and someone suffering from cancer and chemo. In his face, on TV. And then have that person demand why they have to suffer for the sake of 'the chil-drun'. The antis know what will happen; they've been able to deflect this issue by taking a purely academic route, relying on studies (theirs, of course) and keeping their distance from the real, human face of the suffering they've aided and abetted. But on the day they are confronted by angry, sick and dying people, and no chance to slink away, the mask will come off. They'll be shown to have a completely indefensible position in the face of such suffering. And that gives them the cold sweats. We *are* winning. Slowly, painfully, bit by bit. But when enough people realize that this DrugWar can hit them where they live, that groundswell I spoke of will start to rise. When it reaches saturation point, and the smarter pols sense the wind change and join Governor Johnson, it'll be all over but for the shouting. 
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Comment #3 posted by CongressmanSuet on May 16, 2000 at 22:07:55 PT
Lets not start patting each other on the back..
just yet[there is a quote from Pulp Fiction that fits real well here] Kap,, I love your enthusiasm,, and believe you are an excellent writer. You are well researched, and painstaking your work here, and I look forward to your posts. BUT...the Gov. has a long history of finding ways of saying NO to studies such as this one. Its not gonna happen, and if by some miracle it does, its gonna take 5 years + before final approval. As you well know, this whole thing is a big industry, and you know they are paying attention to anything that could open the floodgates so to say...and my question. Why would the cannabis from the U.ofMiss. be dirt weed? Is there no science involved with the growing of the crop? Or is it that the Gov. is purposly trying to grow the lowest THC content cannabis they can? I think the answer is obvious.
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on May 16, 2000 at 12:20:01 PT:
Federal grass?
Unless I am mistaken, the stuff that will be doled out will be the same as type the Compasionate Users program has been giving to people for the last twenty-plus years. Which is low-THC content. But if the Feds don't try to play the shell game as they have for the past decade with Dr. Abrams (DEA says it's okay, but NIDA says nope; silly stupid games while people suffer horribly) then this might truly presage the end of prohibition. The Feds have had nightmares for years about having to admit they're wrong about cannabis. Now, at the end of one Administration and the beginning of another, there just might be a chance. Not out of any sense of compassion, mind you; it's more likely that the bureaucrats are hoping that that if they do this, they might lessen the force of the legal backlash that will follow reports of successful trial usage.Either way, it was public pressure brought to bear upon our legislators by dedicated activists that have gotten us this far. We really *are* winning, people; the antis have gotten even more shrill in their denunciations of us. But their tone is becoming more desperate. By whining about us, they show thet they realize how close this is getting. Whining such as 'well-funded cabal of legalizers with dark agendas!' 'Well funded', eh? Hunh! I'd like to have some of my tax dollars back ('given' under threat of jail by not rendering unto Caesar, mind you) from all the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS squandered by antis in their 'Children's Crusade' over the last 20 years.When they start to make noises like that, they are really scraping the bottom. I've said it before; they've run out of lies to tell. Keep up the good work, all, because it is paying off. Or things like the above article would not be happening. 
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Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on May 16, 2000 at 09:29:54 PT
San Mateo County Controlled Study 
I'd be totally shocked if the DEA & the FDA gave their approval on this. This should have been done 40 years ago, and look how they've stalled and played mind games on honest researchers. The truth is, they all know it's a beneficial plant, but they keep telling the same lies to ensure its illegal status. Too much money is at stake. How sad.The only way out of this is not through paper games with the DEA, it's through ballot initiatives that legalize marijuana medically, and then by decriminalizing it altogether by a vote of the people.See this link, and the one below:http://home.igc.org/~canorml/news/mendorelse.htmlDr. Ganj
http://www.efn.org/~opp/index.html
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