cannabisnews.com: New Pot Research Leaves Clinic 





New Pot Research Leaves Clinic 
Posted by FoM on April 04, 2001 at 10:02:11 PT
By Karen De Sa, Mercury News 
Source: San Jose Mercury News 
San Mateo County officials are recruiting HIV patients for a two-year medicinal marijuana study considered groundbreaking in that it aims to determine whether cannabis will be used medicinally or wind up on the streets.Participants will be monitored through self-reports, home visits, medication logs and the return of marijuana cigarette butts during weekly clinic visits.
The study, launched at a Tuesday press conference, is the first of its kind in the United States funded by local, not state or federal, authorities and aims to determine whether medicinal marijuana use can be studied outside of a clinical setting.But in undertaking the experiment, the county has to trust patients to adhere to the rules. Unlike other publicly funded cannabis studies under way, participants will not be watched while they smoke.If marijuana is to come into widespread use as medication, ``we're not going to use it in a locked ward,'' said Dr. Dennis Israelski, who will oversee the study. ``We're going to use it out in the community.''In the coming weeks, applicants will be screened based on specific criteria. They have to pledge not to sell or swap the drug. They must know how to smoke a marijuana joint. And they must log when and where they inhale, reporting back to San Mateo County General Hospital each week before they get more.It is there that the data will be tracked, with the goal of one day helping to answer whether pot can be safely administered outside of hospitals.Patients will collect a kit each week for six weeks, receiving as many as 35 rolled marijuana cigarettes a week and three plastic containers: one for marijuana grown on government farms in Mississippi, one for partially smoked joints, and one for finished butts, marked for identification purposes.And they must have a safe place to smoke.Because smoking and transporting marijuana is still a crime as far as the federal government is concerned, the study's 60 participants will have legal protection as well. Local sheriff's deputies and police officers will know that if they stop a person carrying a ``medical marijuana research study'' card with the official county seal, that person is free to smoke in peace at home.``If a person is smoking a joint and they have 15 more in their house, they're not going to be arrested,'' San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley said.The county is hoping its study of HIV patients who suffer from a painful and largely untreatable condition in their nerves known as neuropathy will contribute more science to what is so far a legal and ethical dispute.The study came from three years' collaboration between an ex-cop turned county supervisor, Mike Nevin, and Israelski, an internationally renowned AIDS specialist who oversees the county's infectious disease treatment. Nevin wants compassionate care for his constituents; Israelski wants to know if what he hears about marijuana anecdotally from patients -- who suffer from often-untreatable nausea, wasting and chronic pain -- can be scientifically proved.Both want to know if sending the drug out into the community for medicinal purposes will work. And so do other professionals who are studying medicinal marijuana in the more traditional settings of clinics and hospital.Other studies funded by the federal government are under way in California, the first of eight states to legalize marijuana for medicinal use. But San Mateo County's $500,000 contribution places it in a unique spot as the first county in the nation to fund cannabis research, according to a spokeswoman with the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse and local officials.In addition to the San Mateo County project, four federally funded studies are under way at the Center for Medical Cannabis Research in La Jolla. They are a collaborative effort between the University of California campuses in San Francisco and San Diego.Studying marijuana use is hard to do in clinical settings, said Dr. Donald Abrams, the University of California-San Francisco professor of medicine who is overseeing the San Francisco research. San Mateo County is ``taking us a step closer to seeing how this is used in the real world,'' Abrams said.Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Author: Karen De Sa, Mercury News Published: Wednesday, April 4, 2001Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News Contact: letters sjmercury.com Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/Related Article:Breakthrough Study of Medical Pot Use http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9260.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #7 posted by Willy on April 05, 2001 at 19:48:40 PT
Dr. Russo is probably right....
Given the government's inept performance in everything else it's not likely they would be able to grow very good pot either.LOLI do think it must have been used in a study of some kind because of the data strip packed in the tube. This was circa 1972 before Nixon's "War on Drugs" shifted into high gear,(no pun intended). I don't remember if the data strip listed a THC percentage but I do remember those 3 or 4 buds lasted me a looong time.Thanks
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by ekim on April 04, 2001 at 18:45:57 PT:
Canada will grow Med pot in Copper mine
 CN SN: Saskatoon Company Canada's Official Pot SupplierURL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1920/a03.htmlNewshawk: HerbPubdate: Fri, 22 Dec 2000Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)Copyright: 2000 The LeaderPost Ltd.Contact: letters leaderpost.com.Address: 1964 Park Street, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4P 3G4Fax: (306) 565-2588Website: http://www.leader-post.sk.ca/Author: Jason Warick, Saskatchewan News NetworkSASKATOON COMPANY CANADA'S OFFICIAL POT SUPPLIER SASKATOON -- A Saskatoon company is now the federal government's exclusive marijuana supplier after it was awarded a five-year, $5.75-million contract on Thursday. Prairie Plant Systems Inc. ( PPS ) will be expected to supply 185 kilograms of standard marijuana cigarettes and bulk processed marijuana next year, and 420 kilograms per year after that. The drug will be available to the roughly 140 people who have been granted federal medical exemptions so far. Since June of 1999, the federal government has allowed some people to grow and use marijuana as a treatment for diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Some of the PPS marijuana will also be used in research. PPS will also manufacture the placebo pot needed for clinical trials. "We're happy to get it. It's an exciting time for us," PPS president Brent Zettl said. "It's a landmark in history -- the first ( contract ) in the world of this nature." The pot will be grown, processed, and packaged several hundred metres underground in an unused portion of a copper mine near Flin Flon, Man. It will then be shipped to Ottawa, where Health Canada will decide who gets how much. The 80,000-square-foot subterranean operation offers "genetic containment" as well as security, Zettl said. "There's only one way in and one way out," he said. Zettl credited the federal government for licensing the production of a drug that was completely illegal just a couple of years ago. Morphine is accepted to have a legitimate medical use, and Zettl hopes marijuana will gain the same status. "It's a bold step, but they had to in order to bring this drug into the 21st century," he said. PPS beat out nearly 200 other bidders from across Canada, including 33 finalists. "They were the ones who met all of the requirements," said Roslyn Tremblay of Health Canada. Health Canada evaluated the bidders' ability to supply a quality product in a secure environment. The experience PPS had in growing medicinal plants for human consumption was also a plus, as was the amount of its bid, Tremblay said. A lab at McGill University will handle the quality control testing. The evaluation committee included members from the RCMP, Health Canada, the Department of Agriculture, and others. "Canada is acting compassionately by allowing the use of marijuana by people who are suffering from grave and debilitating illness," federal Health Minister Allan Rock said. Health Canada announced the competition for the contract in May. Many provincial groups expressed interest, including Saskatoon's Meewasin Valley Authority, Saskatchewan Health and individual farmers.  
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on April 04, 2001 at 18:35:55 PT:
Govt. Grade Not Impressive
I doubt the tube had government cannabis in it. It comes only two ways: pre-rolled joints, or loose in a baggy. Their material tops out at 5% THC, but they say that is too sticky to roll, so the joints are usually 3 % or less. Thus, not too many people would be impressed.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by Willy on April 04, 2001 at 17:51:10 PT
Government weed
Years ago when I was still a somewhat regular user of marijuana I aquired a test tube with about 3 or 4 buds in it. The person I got it from wouldn't tell me where or how she got it but only that it was grown by the government. It had a little foil strip in the tube that was printed with a lot of esoteric information, most of which meant nothing to me. However there was one that did: paranoia level -- 97% and they weren't kidding. It was one hit and "Katie bar the door!!"If government pot is still like that they won't need 35 joints a week. If this study is legitimate the results will most likely be positive and could help to bring about widespread use of marijuana for medical reasons. Thanks
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Rambler on April 04, 2001 at 12:03:16 PT
Government rolling machine
Juan brings up an item of interest concerning fed-weed.Now let's see,if uncle sam needed to produce some reefers,who doyou suppose he would go to for advice on processing the herb intosmokable joints?  Perhap some of sams old buddys at R.J.Reynolds,or Phillip Morris could help.Well by gum,they just happened to have an old Chesterfield machine thatwould work perfect.Heck,you could use this baby for Lucky Strikes,Pall Malls,Camel straights, anything.  Just pour the weed in one end,and get a pack of20 reefers out the other end.You can imagine how meticulous the buffoons who make government weed are.I doubt there are any professional,or retired Hippies on the crew....
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 04, 2001 at 11:02:40 PT:
Check This Out
Aids Patients To Be Given Confiscated Marijuana for Study http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9260.shtml#1
My Medical Marijuana Page
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Juan Costo on April 04, 2001 at 10:59:14 PT
Government weed?
Obviously, the researchers have no other option, but I would think that smoking the strongest pot possible would make more sense from a medicinal perspective. One or two puffs would achieve the desired effect -- with minimal lung irritation -- as opposed to smoking an entire joint of low-grade government weed. From what I hear, the government weed is pretty bad and the joints are composed of the entire plant run through a machine -- leaf, seeds, stems and all. 
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: