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   . . . a weekly service for the media on news items related to marijuana
                                prohibition.
                              October 15, 1997
         NIDA Okays Study On Marijuana Use In HIV-Positive Patients
       San Francisco Researcher Gets Go Ahead After Five Year Struggle
        October 15, 1997, Washington, D.C.:   The National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA) officially announced Dr. Donald Abrams of UC-San Francisco will
receive his full grant request of $978,000 for a study of the use of smoked
marijuana, oral dronabinol, and a placebo, in HIV-positive patients.
Abrams waited five years and submitted three separate research protocols
before finally receiving approval from the federal government.
        "The earth has shifted," announced MAPS President and NORML board
member Rick Doblin, whose organization donated $5,000 for the preparation of
Abrams' application.  "Celebration is in order."
        The aim of Abrams' study is to determine the safety/toxicity profile
of cannabinoids in persons with HIV infection.  Doblin estimates that the
study will take over one year to complete and research is scheduled to begin
in 1998.  If the study demonstrates that smoked marijuana does not have
serious short-term side effects on the health of HIV-positive patients,
Abrams would next research safety and efficacy of the chronic use of
marijuana for HIV-associated anorexia and weight loss.
        NIDA's approval of Abrams' protocol comes on the heels of a National
Institutes of Health (NIH) report urging the federal government to play an
active role in facilitating clinical evaluations of medical marijuana.  The
report -- assembled by a panel of NIH experts and researchers from
February's "Workshop on the Medical Utility of Marijuana" conference --
concluded that marijuana "looks promising enough [in the treatment of
certain serious illnesses] to recommend that there be new controlled studies
done."  Researchers called upon NIDA to make available "adequate supplies of
marijuana ... to investigators," and insisted that future trials should not
hold marijuana to higher scientific standards than those applied to other
medications or required by law.
        Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation,
praised the apparent change of heart among NIH officials toward the
possibility of medical marijuana research.  "The Abrams' study will be the
first FDA-approved study of the use of smoked marijuana in a patient
population in nearly a decade," he emphasized.
        However, St. Pierre remained critical of the five year delay in
getting the Abrams' study off the ground.  "In 1992, Dr. Abrams embarked on
a simple pilot study to determine whether marijuana stimulates weight gain
in HIV-positive patients.  That protocol, although FDA approved and was
rejected by both NIDA and the DEA on three separate occassions.  Only after
Abrams revised the study to limit its scope to determining only if there are
risk factors associated with the use of marijuana by HIV-positive humans did
NIH allow the trial to go forward.  This approved protocol is a far cry from
what Abrams proposed five years ago."
        The San Francisco study requires 63 volunteers to undergo 25-day
stays at the city's general hospital.  One-third of the subjects will smoke
marijuana cigarettes while others will be given either synthetic THC or a
dummy pill that resembles dronabinol.  Because of limited space at the
hospital, only three or four patients will be studied each month, The San
Francisco Chronicle reported.
        For more information, please contact either Rick Doblin of MAPS @
(704) 334-1798 or Paul Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.  Dr. Donald
Abrams may be contacted @ either (415) 476-9554 or (415) 476-9553.
             Jury Votes 9-3 To Acquit In Hawaii Hemp Seed Trial
        October 15, 1997, Hilo, HI:   The case of a Hawaiian activist on
trial for possessing legal hemp bird seeds ended in a mistrial on October 8
after a jury voted 9-3 to acquit.  The verdict brought a temporary close to
a five year battle between local hemp activists Roger Christie and Aaron
Anderson and Deputy Prosecutor Kay Iopa.  Iopa has six weeks to decide
whether to retry the case.
        Anderson and Christie were indicted for "commercial promotion" of
marijuana in 1992 after Anderson ordered sterilized hemp seeds from China.
Current law allows individuals to import and possess such seeds.
Prosecutors later dropped charges against Christie, but brought Anderson to
trial after claiming that a marginal percentage of the seeds germinated.
        "I can't think of a bigger waste of taxpayer dollars than the money
spent prosecuting Aaron Anderson for purchasing a product recognized as
legal under both state and federal law," charged Allen St. Pierre, Executive
Director of The NORML Foundation.  "It has been apparent all along that
prosecutors put Anderson on trial for his beliefs rather than his actions."
        Deputy Prosecutor Iopa testified that her office would not prosecute
a "little old lady," if she possessed hemp seeds, but would file charges
against an individual who "is very vocally, very outwardly, advocating the
legalization of marijuana."  Based upon these statements, a federal appeals
court recently upheld a $3 million lawsuit brought by Christie and Anderson
against Hawaii prosecutors for unlawful prosecution.  That case is expected
to go to trial next summer.
        For more information, please contact Roger Christie @ (808) 961-0488
or NORML board member Don Wirtshafter @ (614) 662-4367.
            Cures Not Wars Wheelchair March Underway In Northeast
        October 15, 1997, New York, NY:   A wheelchair protest trek
sponsored by the New York city-based drug law reform coalition Cures Not
Wars is bringing attention throughout the Northeast to the plight of medical
marijuana patients.  The approximately month long journey began in Boston,
Massachusetts and intends to culminate in Washington, D.C. on October 30.
        Protest organizer Dana Beal said that the purpose of the march is to
raise awareness of marijuana's medical utility.  Beal also promotes the
effectiveness of the drug Ibogaine in treating addiction.  "We are asking
the government to reinstate the program of compassionate access, where
people can get marijuana as needed and extend it to Ibogaine," Beal told
spectators at a recent stop at the University of Connecticut.
        Currently, marchers are in New Jersey as they continue en route to
the nation's capitol.
        For more information, please contact Cures Not Wars @ (212)
677-7180.
                                    -END-
  MORE THAN 10 MILLION MARIJUANA ARRESTS SINCE 1965 . . . ANOTHER EVERY 49
                                  SECONDS!
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