Pubdate: Fri, 04 Mar 2016
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Monte Whaley

CROWDFUNDING FOR CSU POT STUDY

Researcher Wants to Investigate Long- Term Use Among MS Patients.

A Colorado State University researcher is launching a crowdfunding 
campaign to study the effects of long-term marijuana use among 
multiple sclerosis patients in northern Colorado.

CSU is quick to point out that the research project will not involve 
providing cannabis or encouraging its use. The study will "simply 
examine existing users who have decided to treat their MS symptoms 
with medical marijuana and voluntarily agree to participate in the 
study," the university said.

Thorsten Rudroff, director of CSU's Integrative Neurophysiology Lab, 
would like to conduct tests on at least 20 MS patients in northern 
Colorado who already are using medical marijuana and compare them 
with members of a control group of the same size who do not.

Rudroff said Colorado, which voted to allow medical marijuana use in 
2000, is an ideal location for the study.

He notes that local clinicians estimate that up to 50 percent of 
their patients are using marijuana to alleviate symptoms.

"Marijuana use may have additional benefits, such as improving motor 
function, but this is all based on anecdotal evidence," Rudroff said. 
"We don't have scientific evidence that this is working, so we think 
this research could provide valuable information."

"This research," he said, "can't be done in many other states that 
don't have the same marijuana laws."

Also, Colorado is an ideal area for the study because the state has 
one of the highest rates of MS in the country, he said. An estimated 
2.7 million people worldwide live with MS, 550,000 of whom live in 
the U. S., according to Rudroff's crowdfunding video, which notes 
that one in 420 Coloradans live with the disease.

Rudroff, an assistant professor in CSU's Department of Health and 
Exercise Science, said MS patients typically display lower 
thanaverage glucose uptake in the brain and spinal cord, along with 
unnecessary muscle firing in the legs or in one side of the body, 
which may cause weakness and fatigue.

He will look at whether the scans of MS patients who take medical 
marijuana display more efficient muscle activation or changes in the 
central nervous system's glucose intake by injecting a sugar-based 
tracer into subjects' veins before they exercise on the treadmill.

Afterward, the PET/ CT scan shows the extent to which the tracer was 
consumed as an energy source by tissue in the brain, spinal cord and 
lower extremities.

"With MS, something along that path from the brain to the legs goes 
wrong," Rudroff said. "Maybe cannabis somehow improves this drive to 
the muscles."

He decided to go the crowdsourcing route because of the growing 
competition for federal grants. Rudroff hopes to raise at least $ 7,000.

Donations can be made via CSU's CHARGE! crowdfunding website at col.st/nsg6F.

Rudroff hopes the results from the study will help him land grants 
from agencies such as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and 
National Institutes of Health for more research.

In addition to physical tests and scans, Rudroff launched an 
anonymous survey on the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's website 
that asks those who have the neurological disease about their medical 
marijuana use.

That survey is available at col.st/Rvg4K.

A landmark analysis published last year in the Journal of the 
American Medical Association showed that medical marijuana hasn't yet 
been proven to remedy most of the conditions governments have 
authorized it to treat. But the JAMA analysis did note the science 
behind cannabis as legitimate treatment for four conditions, 
including spasticity from multiple sclerosis - and severe pain, 
nausea and vomiting related to chemotherapy.

Staff writer Ricardo Baca contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom