Pubdate: Tue, 01 Feb 2000
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2000 Southam Inc.
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Author: Winnie Hu, The New York Times

PROFESSOR'S 'DOOBIE DERM' IS NO LAUGHING MATTER

ALBANY, N.Y. - Audra Stinchcomb says she has never smoked marijuana, but 
that does not prevent colleagues at the Albany College of Pharmacy from 
inquiring about her "pot patch" or "doobie derm" whenever they can.

Her two-year effort to research and develop a medical marijuana patch that 
would release the drug's active ingredients through the skin has inspired 
more one-liners than she can recall. The patch is intended to be used by 
cancer patients for relief from nausea, vomiting and other side effects of 
chemotherapy.

"Everybody always comes in and has a new joke for me," said Stinchcomb, 34, 
an assistant professor at the pharmacy college and a leading researcher on 
the ways that chemicals are absorbed through the skin. "I can't help it. 
It's amusing."

But Stinchcomb's research is being taken seriously by doctors and 
scientific researchers as evidence increasingly suggests that chemicals in 
marijuana have health benefits. A report last year by the Institute of 
Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the 
chemicals, called cannabinoids, relieve pain and nausea, although the 
report warned that marijuana smoke was even more toxic than tobacco smoke.

Earlier this month, Stinchcomb's proposal for a marijuana patch was awarded 
a $361,000 grant from the American Cancer Society.

"I think this is a bold step for us," said Don Distasio, the cancer 
society's chief operating officer in New York and New Jersey, who 
acknowledged that the proposal was controversial but said it had been 
screened by three panels of doctors, scientists and staff members as part 
of the application process.

The project has also been approved by the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration, which regulates experiments with illegal drugs.

The patch would use synthetic cannabinoids created in a laboratory and is 
years away from being tested on people. Eric Voth, chairman of the 
International Drug Strategy Institute, an organization in Omaha, Neb., that 
reviews drug policies, said the patch could pass along the therapeutic 
effects of marijuana without making the drug itself available.

"It's no more a marijuana patch than a nicotine patch is a tobacco patch," 
Voth said. "I'm all for trying to find pure, reliable medicine, but I do 
not support the idea of smoking weed for medicinal purposes."

Those who want to legalize marijuana also see the benefit of developing a 
patch. "It is yet another acknowledgment, even if it is somewhat muted, by 
the government that marijuana is a valuable medicine," said Allen St. 
Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of 
Marijuana Laws.

Stinchcomb prefers to stay clear of the political debate. "There's an 
extremely serious side to this, because it's treating cancer patients," she 
said.
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