-=> Note:
Copied (from: alt.hemp) by Scott Parks using timEd.
From: Aron Kay 
Subject: Panel recommends pot research
Organization: Lightning Internet Services, LLC
by PAUL RECER
 The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (Aug. 8) - A report released Friday called on the National
Institutes of Health to facilitate research into the medicinal benefits
of marijuana, but the agency says it ''has always'' been willing to
consider such projects.
''We will put the applications through our normal scientific review and
are prepared to fund applications that meet the accepted standards of
scientific design and ... are competitive with other applications,'' Dr.
Harold Varmus, director of the NIH, said in a statement.
The NIH funds much of the nation's medical research, but only rarely has
provided grants for studying the therapeutic uses of marijuana.
At the White House, spokesman Mike McCurry said the administration
opposes using marijuana to treat sick people, but acknowledges there are
scientific issues that need to be addressed.
The eight-member NIH advisory panel of private doctors and nurses
recommended marijuana be studied for its effect on improving the
appetite of patients with severe weight loss; controlling nausea and
vomiting for cancer patients; regulating some neurological disorders,
such as epilepsy; abating pain; and treating glaucoma, a serious and
progressive eye disorder.
For treatment of some conditions ''marijuana looks promising enough to
recommend that there be new controlled studies,'' committee chairman Dr.
William Beaver of Georgetown University School of Medicine is quoted as
saying in the report.
But the experts said the drug should only be tested on a benefit-risk
calculation, just as other medical therapies are, and should be
separated ''from the societal debate over the potential harmful effects
of nonmedical marijuana use.''
Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project, a group favoring more
medical use of the drug, said the report should prompt legislation that
would permit medical use of the drug now, without waiting for research
to satisfy ''rigid'' federal requirements.
''If we wait ... thousands of patients will be arrested and sent to
prison in the meantime,'' Thomas said.
The committee, selected and sponsored by the National Institutes of
Health, met for two days in February to review studies on medical uses
of marijuana and to hear testimony from patients and other doctors.
Their report is a ''compilation of the opinions'' of the committee.
Among the report's conclusions:
- Because smoked marijuana contains a variety of combustion compounds,
it can damage the lungs and possibly the immune system. The committee
recommended the development of an inhalation device that delivers pure
THC - the active ingredient in marijuana - to the lungs in a controlled
dosage and free of the dangerous combustion compounds.
- There is some evidence - but no scientifically-valid studies - that
marijuana is useful in treating some forms of epilepsy and spasticity
caused by multiple sclerosis.
- Some studies have shown that smoked marijuana is effective for some
patients in relieving nausea cause by cancer chemotherapy. But the
committee noted that since the 1980s when those studies were conducted,
a number of new anti-nausea drugs have been developed.
- There is evidence that marijuana may improve the appetite and help
patients gain weight. This could be lifesaving for AIDS patients who
develop wasting, a severe weight loss condition. However, the committee
noted that any smoking, including marijuana, increases the risk of
pneumonia in HIV patients. It also noted that dronabinol, a pill that
contains THC, also is effective against wasting.
- Smoked marijuana is effective in lowering pressure inside the eyeballs
of some patients with glaucoma. But the committee said the drug also
drops blood pressure, and this could compromise blood flow to the optic
nerve and damage vision.
 AP-NY-08-08-97 1652EDT
Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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