Pubdate: Thu, 18 Dec 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Authors: John Ingold and TomMcGhee

STATE AGREES TO POT STUDIES

$8.4 Million Will Be Used to Research the Medical Effectiveness of Marijuana

Colorado's Board of Health on Wednesday approved up to $8.4 million 
of grants to pay for eight studies on medical marijuana, part of the 
largest-ever state-funded effort to study the medical efficacy of cannabis.

The studies will look at whether marijuana can be used to treat 
childhood epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson's 
disease, inflammatory bowel disease, pediatric brain tumors and spine 
pain. University researchers will conduct all of the studies, meaning 
the results will provide some of the best - and most respected - 
evidence to date on whether marijuana is a useful medicine.

"This is new and uncharted territory," Dr. Larry Wolk, executive 
director of the Colorado health department, said prior to the board's 
unanimous vote to approve the funding.

Last year, the state legislature authorized the Colorado health 
department to spend $9 million on medical marijuana research, meaning 
there remains as much as $1 million that will be used to expand the 
already approved studies or fund additional research. An additional 
$1 million will be used for the program's administrative expenses.

The money comes from the registration fees that patients pay to be on 
the state's medical marijuana registry. But the funding mechanism has 
prompted a lawsuit from a group of medical marijuana advocates that 
could threaten the grant program.

The Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project is asking a judge 
in Denver to block the program's implementation, saying that 
Colorado's medical marijuana amendment requires patient fees be used 
only for administrative purposes. Spending the money on research is 
an unconstitutional use of the funds, the lawsuit contends.

"It's not going to happen," Kathleen Chippi, one of the lawsuit's 
plaintiffs, told the Board of Health on Wednesday about the grant 
program. "You don't have the legal right."

Chippi said her group would prefer the state use private dollars or 
money from elsewhere in the state budget to fund the studies.

Other medical marijuana supporters, though, pleaded with the Board of 
Health to approve the grants. Wendy Turner, whose son uses cannabis 
to treat his Crohn's disease, broke into tears while describing her 
son's condition. She said he was in a wheelchair when the family 
moved this year to Colorado from Illinois for access to medical 
marijuana. This summer, with his disease in remission, he was able to 
climb mountains, Turner said.

"This research is important because there are so many other kids out 
there like this," she said.

Veterans' supporters also backed the grants. Chris Latona, a veteran 
of the war in Afghanistan, said, if marijuana is proven an effective 
treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, it could stem an 
epidemic of veterans' suicides.

"We need to use every tool available at this point to save these 
young men and women's lives," he said.

Colorado's program builds on the work of California's Center for 
Medicinal Cannabis Research, which spent $8.7 million over 12 years 
on medical marijuana studies. Wolk said Colorado's program hopes to 
supplement existing research, not reinvent it.

"This is not to be the be all and end-all of research on these 
clinical conditions," he said. "This is to try to provide meaningful 
contributions to the body of research that already exists."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom