cannabisnews.com: California Center Will Explore MMJ Potential





California Center Will Explore MMJ Potential
Posted by FoM on August 29, 2000 at 19:37:04 PT
By Judy Lin, Associated Press Writer 
Source: Sacramento Bee
The University of California, San Diego will soon begin trials on medical marijuana at the nation's first research center designed to explore the drug's therapeutic potential.Doctors announced the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research on Tuesday as part of the state's effort to set medical guidelines following the voter-approved medical marijuana law.
The center, headquartered in San Diego, will begin distributing grants to conduct clinical trials at universities and research centers throughout California as early as January.The studies will look at whether marijuana is a safe alternative for treating certain kinds of medical conditions and the best ways to administer it, such as through pills, patches or sprays."Our job is to show if these products are helpful and we can answer that definitively," said Igor Grant, the center's director and professor of psychiatry at UCSD.Gov. Gray Davis has already approved $3 million to fund the program's first year while legislation calls for a three-year program. The center was set up in large response to Proposition 215, the 1996 state initiative allowing seriously ill patients to grow and use marijuana for pain relief, if they have a doctor's recommendation.Measures similar to the California initiative have passed in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.State Sen. John Vasconcellos, who pushed for medical marijuana, penned the program in 1996 but initially faced opposition from law enforcement groups. Only after working with Attorney General Bill Lockyer did Vasconcellos convince many that research was a good idea."It's been a very long road since the passage of 215 to even get as far as we had with research," said Rand Martin, a spokesman for Vasconcellos. "We have had to deal with a lot of political problems and the most exciting thing is that we're putting the politics behind us."Proponents have long argued that marijuana helps patients with chronic pain and with AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis by relieving pain and nausea. Opponents of marijuana say scientific research is necessary."We consider research a good thing," said Bob Weiner of the White House National Drug Control Policy Office. "To have medicine determined by science and not by popular will is exactly what we support."Doctors at UCSD's center hope the research will eventually determine whether marijuana has medical benefits because current federal law says the drug has no medical purpose.Trial patients will get marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and researchers have pledged to follow all medical guidelines."There's been a long history of contention around cannabis and it has been difficult to do research," said Grant. "This it the first study that's multidisciplinary. The state of California has taken the lead here."Published: August 29, 2000Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)Copyright: 2000 The Sacramento BeeContact: opinion sacbee.com Address: P.O.Box 15779 Sacramento CA 95852Website: http://www.sacbee.com/Feedback: http://www.sacbee.com/about_us/sacbeemail.htmlForum: http://www.sacbee.com/voices/voices_forum.htmlRelated Articles:Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Establishedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6869.shtmlStudy Finds Marijuana Use Safe for HIV Patients http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6383.shtmlDavis Moves Away From OK of Card For Marijuana Usehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/2/thread2041.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 30, 2000 at 07:54:22 PT
A Medical Marijuana Research Center
NewsHawk: http://www.cannabisnews.com/Published: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 Source: San Francisco ChronicleAuthor: David Perlman©2000 San Francisco Chronicle Physicians at the San Francisco and San Diego campuses of the University of California announced yesterday that they will set up a scientific research center to study the medical uses and effects of marijuana. The new Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, which is to be established in San Diego, will start off with $3 million in state money for its first year, the doctors said. Click to read the complete article.URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/30/MN16702.DTL 
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