Pubdate: Thu, 18 Feb 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: AA3
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: John Hoeffel
Referenced: The report http://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/CMCR_REPORT_FEB17.pdf

UC STUDIES FIND PROMISE IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Cannabis Can Greatly Ease Neuropathic Pain and Muscle Spasms, Researchers Show

With an innovative but little-known state program to study medical 
marijuana about to run out of money, researchers and political 
supporters said Wednesday the results show promise.

"It should take all the mystery out of whether it works. We've got 
the results," said former state Sen. John Vasconcellos, who led the 
effort to create the 10-year-old Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research.

The center has nearly spent its $8.7-million allocation, sponsoring 
14 studies at UC campuses, including the first clinical trials of 
smoked marijuana in the United States in more than two decades.

Much of the research is still underway or under review, but five 
studies have been published in scientific journals. Four showed that 
cannabis can significantly relieve neuropathic pain and one found 
that vaporizers are an effective way to use marijuana. Another study, 
submitted for publication, found that marijuana can reduce muscle 
spasms in multiple sclerosis patients.

Dr. Igor Grant, a neuropsychiatrist at UC San Diego who is the 
center's director, called the pain studies "pretty convincing" and 
urged the federal government to pay for additional clinical studies.

With the state stuck in a daunting budget crisis, even the center's 
advocates do not expect more support. "There is no state money at 
this time, unfortunately," said state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco).

Since the center opened in 2000, medical marijuana use has spread 
rapidly in California, driven largely by doctors' willingness to 
recommend it for a wide range of ailments. But little research has 
been done on its effectiveness, in part because researchers must win 
approval from federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Grant said federal officials did not try to thwart the research, but 
noted that approval typically took 18 months. "We basically did a lot 
of the work for investigators in terms of jumping through the hoops," he said.

The unusual scientific program, approved by the Legislature in 1999, 
was the result of negotiations between Vasconcellos and former Atty. 
Gen. Dan Lungren. The two were vigorous adversaries in the 
contentious debate over the 1996 initiative that approved the use of 
medical marijuana.

Lungren, now a Republican congressman from Gold River, argued that 
Californians were moving ahead without the research needed to show 
whether marijuana was useful as a medicine. "I said at that time, if 
we had scientific evidence, we ought to be guided by scientific 
evidence," he said.

"I was shrewd enough to pick up on Lungren's 'Let's do research,' " 
Vasconcellos said. Lungren said he was shrewd enough to accept.

Lungren said the results are helpful, but underscore that medical 
marijuana should be more tightly controlled and used only where it 
has been proven effective.

The center funded a range of research, including six studies of 
whether marijuana reduces neuropathic pain, which is caused by a 
damaged or abnormally functioning nervous system. A UC San Francisco 
study of patients with HIV-related pain found that 52% of those who 
smoked marijuana experienced significant relief.

"I think that clearly cannabis has benefits," said Dr. Donald I. 
Abrams, a San Francisco oncologist who led that study. "This 
substance has been a medicine for 2,700 years; it only hasn't been a 
medicine for 70."

Abrams doubts that the research will alter the debate over marijuana. 
"Science has not been driving this train for a long time now. I think 
it's all politics," he said.

Grant was more optimistic: "We have a different administration, and 
they are looking at the science basis of many things."

He said the research shows marijuana should no longer be classified 
as a Schedule I drug. "It is not a drug without value," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake