cannabisnews.com: Scientist Announce Study on Medicinal Value of Pot Scientist Announce Study on Medicinal Value of Pot Posted by FoM on February 22, 2001 at 20:29:57 PT By Eric Bailey, Los Angeles Times Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch More than four years after California voters legalized medical marijuana, researchers announced Thursday the first batch of studies planned under a $3 million state effort to determine what value pot has as medicine.The four studies approved by the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research are the first step by the state to set concrete guidelines for use of the drug by patients suffering illnesses such as AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and glaucoma. Research teams at the University of California at San Francisco and San Diego will look at smoked marijuana's effect on HIV-related pain. Another study will focus on whether pot can ease spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis. A fourth research team will examine concerns over the drug's effect on the driving abilities of patients with AIDS or MS.Igor Grant, a psychiatry professor at UC San Diego and the center's director, said university research unfettered by any political agenda should answer basic questions about medical marijuana while helping to ``reset the national thermostat on this issue.''For years, the federal government has been largely unwilling to fund exhaustive clinical studies of pot's potential therapeutic value, preferring instead to support research into the drug's effects as an illegal narcotic.But federal officials have increasingly called for scientific proof in the face of a groundswell movement that resulted in legalization of medical marijuana in California and a half-dozen other states. The drug remains an illegal narcotic under federal law, and the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to medical marijuana next month.Grant and others hope the California research effort, which won state funding last year, can spur even more ambitious medical marijuana studies backed by the federal government.Though the four studies could begin as soon as May 1, a key hurdle remains.The only source of research-grade marijuana in the United States is a federal farm at the University of Mississippi. The California researchers have yet to win approval from a fleet of agencies -- including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration -- that will be needed to obtain the research cannabis.Grant and the researchers don't expect snags. Federal regulators are interested, he said, as long as marijuana researchers are ``serious people looking at serious medical questions and not approaching it from some advocacy position.''Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Author: Eric Bailey, Los Angeles TimesPublished: February 22, 2001Copyright: 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Address: 900 North Tucker Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri 63101 Contact: letters post-dispatch.comWebsite: http://www.postnet.com/ Forum: http://www.postnet.com/postnet/config.nsf/forums Related Articles:California Center Will Explore MMJ Potentialhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6870.shtmlCenter for Medicinal Cannabis Research Establishedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6869.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #16 posted by Lehder on February 24, 2001 at 05:35:25 PT P.S. To defeat the totalitarian death movement we need television. You know perfectly well that if we had the access to television for spreading our message then the drug war would be bankrupt in a month. The pols know that they're not going to get away with another set of exclusive, closed-to-Nader-Browne "debates". So the genocidal hammer must come down before 4 years have passed; I give it 1-2 years. It will start with the e-equivalent of Krystallnacht: turning the Internet OFF with Carnivore and Echelon. This, and martial law, could be justified by, for example, the government's setting off 3 or 4 explosions like the one in Oklahoma City, declaring the nation under attack by terrorists. The offspring of Nixon's Watergate goons - the DEA - are well equipped to carry this out. Don't take my word for it - you'll see it all on TV, or at least what you are competent to see, permitted to see.More likely, though, public acceptance of genocide will be forced through the contiinued slow squeezing of our rights, propaganda, spreading of fear and hatred, same as the last 20 years.Our job is to spread the word, to make connections among the islands of people - Blacks, Parents Against Ritalin, and others as we can. AND WE GOTTA GET ON TV. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by Lehder on February 24, 2001 at 05:10:35 PT Death Machine Stalin used to keep a vast index card file showing connections among people: who knows who, who does business with whom, etc. Study of these files would reveal various "islands" of associations, groups of people in contact with each other but whose members have little contact with others outside this group or island. So when he wanted to eliminate someone in business or government he eliminated the entire island of people. That way, there was no one left to complain, the victims were little missed. Monitoring of email - in fact monitoring the originating and destination addresses alone - can today define the same islands of association, but far more efficiently of course. I've often wondered why the government, intransigent, relentless in its oppression of anyone who deviates from christian-soldier-ashcroft values, would allow the Internet to fluorish at all. It's a setup, people, or at least that is how the g will use it, and you can easily think of many more ways in which information about citizens will be used to identify and destroy them; so have they.kap recently asked why Blacks have not been eager to join the reform movement. One answer is that they are convinced that drugs - crack, heroin - were foisted upon, directed at the ghetto intentionally to addict, weaken and kill them. So naturally they have been ambivalent toward legalization movements.(The ghettos, by the way, do indeed form distinct social and economic islands much separated from the population as a whole.)Yesterday someone gave an excellent link to a Libertarian page that described all the new sensors in addition to the thermal imager that gov can use to track us - the sensors that can examine the contents of your pockets from a distance of 60 feet, the xray machines that are being installed in airports, the super sensitive drug detectors that I continue to claim will be installed at airports and on the belts of the police, gamma ray sensors that can look through steel walls of ocean containers and your lunchbox too etc.It was about 3-4 years ago that it became necessary to show ID in order to get on a plane - for your protection and safety. Previously you could go anywhere as John Smith if you desired.And we have seen the first of the "scourge of drugs and drugged driverdeath on our highway" scare articles based on emotion and not fact. I claim that these emotional stories are consciusly fabricated to maipulate people inot accepting the portable police sensors as necessary and desirable. I've talked about them before, how a positive reading based on some nanogram amounts of contraband will justify a searches of ever-widening scope - you person, your car, then your home, demands for people places you recently visited, as far as they can take it.Look, I'm on light duty today so i didn't take the trouble to find the links I mentioned. But you can start adding all these new policies up. I have, and I know where totalitarian movements in general lead. It's not hard to see how all these diverse steps fit together into a nice totalitarian classic scheme of killing anyone who does not think like bush and ashcroft. Saying so makes me even more of a target. The numerous new developments I've tabulated here - and it is easy to identify more - seemingly small when considered individually, are intended in combination to serve the greater consciously-laid plan for the final two steps of Richard Miller's Drug Warriors - concentration and annihilation: genocide. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on February 24, 2001 at 04:28:14 PT: Different Poll Question Rather than ask people in polls whether cannabis should be legalized, we should ask whether they think people should be incarcerated for its use. Your responses will be quite different, and probably exceed 60% saying "no." That's something to wave in the politicians faces and hope that they have an iota of independent thought, compassion or bravery. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by dddd on February 24, 2001 at 01:12:17 PT Outasight! I really like it when I read an honest and true manifesto from someonewho is writing with the pure innocent zeal,inspired by the,"I've Had It!" realization.I found Sir Dan Bs' comment outstanding.It stirred my spirit to hear the,"That does it!",,,"No More Mr Nice Guy!" attitude,from the usually optomistic and positive Dan B.I agree with Dans dark predictions.It's just the regretfully eminent jaugernaut of actuality.After one tires of foraging through the hopeful outlooks,and grazing about the positive possibilities,,,,one starts to see the other side of the fence,and the green grass of getting angry opens a whole newworld of pessimistic interest and intrigue......................beware the downside of going too far however,,,,As in my case,one could easily end up wandering off into the peculiar world of abstract punctuation,,and exceedingly verbose babble.,,And I dont even do drugs!...none the less.....JAH Shine On You All.........dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Dan B on February 24, 2001 at 01:00:29 PT: P.S. Sorry for all that underlining. I meant to just underline Spin Room.Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Dan B on February 24, 2001 at 00:59:09 PT: Thanks, Nifty. I like your "Matrix" metaphor. The transcript from Spin Room with New Mexico Governor Johnson posted here on Cannabis News helped me calm down a bit. It was nice to see Press agreeing with him, and I am somewhat encouraged by the numbers in the poll, which are consistent with other recent polls (39% of Americans favor outright legalization of marijuana) and show a continued growth of support for legalization. Only 12% more to go for a majority!We will continue to see a groundswell of support if we continue to pass the word that all drugs are not equal, and that all prohibition laws are guaranteed stiflers of personal freedom for everyone.I've taken a few breaths and calmed down a bit. I feel okay now. Keep pressing on!Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by NiftySplifty on February 24, 2001 at 00:05:00 PT I'm with you, Dan B... I have found myself feeling like the character in "The Matrix" whose eyes have been opened, but no one else will listen to our rants.I'm listening, my friend, and I know the number of those who do is growing.Sometimes we have to take a breath and count to ten, or we'll make ourselves crazy.The Day will come.Nifty... [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Dan B on February 23, 2001 at 22:42:43 PT: The Most Angry I Have Been in a Long Time You're right, Stripey. Bush will not back out on his promise to equalize powder cocaine and crack sentences. I'm sure we will soon see a bill pass that will hike the current sentencing guidelines for powder cocaine up to the crack cocaine levels.This war isn't going anywhere. Like it or not, in the next four years the U. S. government will wage the most bloody and costly stage of the war on the Bill of Rights (couched in the language of "fighting drugs") that we have ever seen. I predict the beginnings of a national disaster of Nazi Holocaust proportions. We have already seen the UN praising the Taliban-run government of Afghanistan for getting rid of the poppy fields. How long do you think it will take before they begin to take on the Taliban's tactics of murdering "drug offenders'" families before their eyes and dismembering "drug offenders" in public executions? Unless we can be successful at halting this increasing madness, we are in for an international crisis that will make the Nazis look like amateurs. Soon, we won't be just fighting for our rights; we'll be fighting for our lives. Even if Bush wanted to change current drug policy, he has absolutely no backbone. He will cave to his puppeteers, including his father who sold cocaine to purchase weapons for the Contras. Think we've had it bad so far? If something isn't done to change the world climate--and I mean NOW--we will never again know the meaning of the word "freedom." I honestly believe it has become this critical. My "representatives" respond to my letters with platitudes and carefully-worded propaganda rather than listening to anything I have to say. They are all bigots. They are all in favor of escalating a war against American citizens. Phil Gramm, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Larry Combest--they can all go to hell. Have you read the United Nations "Universal Declaration of Human Rights"? It consists of 30 articles outlining a wide array of rights human beings supposedly have throughout the world, but check out the last item in Article 29:These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.In other words, everyone has rights, but the UN has the right to take every last one of those rights away for whatever purpose the UN deems fit. BULL F$^KING S#*T! Who gave the UN that power? Not me. I am this close to going medieval on their a$$e$. I am fuming mad at the lies. These people are robbing us of everything. What's the point of living if these a$$holes can steal everything good from our lives? Are we really going to have to take up arms over this? Is it really going to have to come to that? Hey, every once in a while I get really bent out of shape with all of this crap. I have to vent sometimes, and I've found that the people here are usually quite patient with me when I do. I know I may sound irrational, but I honestly fear that what I've said above is true. Like I tell my Mom every time I talk to her about the drug war: I'm really not in favor of people shooting themselves up with deadly chemicals, or drinking themselves to death, or whatever. But I am in favor of freedom, and the minute you regulate what a person can put into his or her own body, you not only destroy that person's right to choose, but destroy every other right associated with making that choice, and not just for that person, but for everyone. It's not simply about whether so-and-so has the right to use drugs. It's about whether anyone has the right to do anything without being under the watchful eye of the government. We are a police state now. Let's not become a Holocaust.Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Stripey on February 23, 2001 at 10:03:31 PT I disagree. . . As far as the politicos are concerned, the people want certain things. Among these is the equalization of crack and cocaine sentencing. There's no way bush would back out on that after giving it so much public consideration. . . [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by CannabisMythsExposed on February 23, 2001 at 06:53:43 PT: dddd is spot on Both the US and UK governments will stall as long as feasibly possible on medical cannabis. The lip service being given to research is a sham.While I am here I would like to make a prediction:Tony Blair, the highly prohibitionist British Prime Minister is in Washington today to visit Dubya.I have a strong hunch that there will be a major announcement on both sides of the Atlantic that the two 'policemen of the world' will re-invigorate and escalate their 'war on drugs'.If my hunch is correct I will be back in a few days to explain my hypothesis. Cannabis Myths Exposed [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on February 23, 2001 at 05:46:18 PT: Let's get something straight, here. 'For years, the federal government has been largely unwilling to fund exhaustive clinical studies of pot's potential therapeutic value, preferring instead to support research into the drug's effects as an illegal narcotic.'Not quite correct. The sentence should read: '...preferring instead to support research which purports to justify the Federal government's (to date, unfounded) position that cannabis use has serious deleterious effects.'And further on:'But federal officials have increasingly called for scientific proof in the face of a groundswell movement that resulted in legalization of medical marijuana in California and a half-dozen other states.' Sorry, Mr. Bailey, wrong again; The 'Federal officials' have come under increasing political pressure from 'grass-roots' (no pun intended) groups comprised of (say the word!) taxpayers demanding an end to Federal two-stepping, obfuscation, and outright lies on the issue. Those same 'Federal officials' have done everything in their power to drag their feet in conducting the quality of research which this issue cryingly needs. But now, they have been backed into a corner; the same corner that they have fought bureaucratically tooth-and-nail for 30 years to avoid being placed in. Because they know that one hard scientific study disproving 64 years of lies will open the floodgates of litigation. And there's a hell of a lot of boiling-hot water behind this particular dam.The antis remind me of the Witches from MacBeth:"Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble,fire burn and cauldron bubble."They've been preparing that cauldron for us; now, they might find themselves residing in it before too long. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on February 23, 2001 at 04:32:42 PT: Snags will Appear "The California researchers have yet to win approval from a fleet of agencies -- including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration -- that will be needed to obtain the research cannabis. Grant and the researchers don't expect snags."They should expect them because NIDA will throw up bureaucrtic roadblocks to any study that promotes a possible therapeutic effects of cannabis. They will allow safety studies, but not efficacy studies. I got as far as FDA approval, only to have NIDA stop the project cold with their extra layer of oversight that exists for no other drug or compound. See parallel article FoM was nice enough to post, with its link to PDF of the Amicus Curiae brief to the Supreme Court:http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread8765.shtml#6 [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by meagain on February 23, 2001 at 04:27:43 PT local yokal newspaper Geee i wonder why this was all that made it into our local newspaper ...More than four years after California voters legalized medical marijuana, researchers announced Thursday the first batch of studies planned under a $3 million state effort to determine what value pot has as medicine. The four studies approved by the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research are the first step by the state to set concrete guidelines for use of the drug by patients suffering illnesses such as AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and glaucoma. Funny huh ?? [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by dddd on February 23, 2001 at 02:23:21 PT Games? Sharon,,Im sorry to hear about your unfortunate condition.How strange it is,,,that someone who suffers would be denied the basic freedom to use an herb like cannabis,while drug ads on TV,encourage people to buy mind altering legal prescription drugs,for obscure,disorders that have been invented by pharmaceutical mega-corporations.I think the actual research is a good thing.But after that,I have my usual negative opinion of this CRAP!This widely publicized story is feeding the public something that is little more than a delay tactic,and a devious ploy to make it seem like there is a serious concern about marijuana. Its aim is to give the impression to the public that;"We are looking into this marijuana thing.We just want to make sure it's not going to harm anyone." It is designed to give the appearance of a government that is making progress inreforming drug policies,by feeding this crap,they are also reinforcing the assumptionthat not enough is known about marijuana to decriminalize it.This is a pile of SHIT! Where were the state funded studies to look into the health effects of newer syntheticdrugs?I dont remember any such extensive,publicly funded research on Ritalin,or Paxil? This is nothing more than a delay,and diversion ploy to calm the masses,a cheap,yetingenius smokescreen in a continuing fake-out of the public on a grand scale.I thinkit is far more devious,and scandalous than most people could imagine. We live in an age where the influencing of public opinion is a highly developed,andsophisticated science and industry.A $3 million dollar research fake-out is cheap,in the big money world of those who need to maintain the drug war as long as possible.......................BEWARE.....dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Sharon Camp on February 23, 2001 at 01:02:50 PT: how to get help from natual herbs My name is Sharon I have been dignos with MS.,fibromialga, bone degentive diease,degentive disc diaese, lung diaese and Mental health. I have to take up to 90mg of morphine,350mg soma 4 times a day this has been 8 years it seems the only thing to help me move.also 10mg valium,4to6 aday,zannax 2mg3to4 aday,abutrol,flovent and now a new antideppressant that makes me sleep 3and4 days in a role.When I went back to smoking cannabis it help have alife Please if can help me I have already attempted sucide twice because of pain I am only 39, and the cannabis is cheaper than medical bills and drug cost I live on disabilty of 462.00 a mouth I was at job making $50,000.00 a year to this I have looked everywhere for help but Tenn. Dr.s are not fit to work on animals thank you for your time. Sharon http://www.snowcamp bellsouth.net [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: