HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Subjects Smoking Gov't Marijuana
Pubdate: Thu, 10 Oct 2002
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

SUBJECTS SMOKING GOV'T MARIJUANA

Toronto Research Targets Medicinal Pot

TORONTO (CP) -- Will marijuana-induced munchies help people with HIV and 
AIDS combat nausea and avoid the weight-loss that the disease brings on? 
Researchers in Toronto are hoping to find out.

Canada's first government-sponsored trial of medicinal marijuana in 
HIV/AIDS officially started yesterday, led by researchers from St. 
Michael's Hospital and the Community Research Initiative of Toronto.

"I think the time is right to look at this," said principal investigator 
Dr. Kevin Gough, medical director of HIV services at the hospital.

"Let's find out what role, if any, that smoked cannabis has in, not only 
HIV and AIDS, but other medical illnesses as well."

Advocates of medicinal marijuana believe the drug can be useful for a wide 
range of conditions. Anecdotal evidence suggests it helps in pain control, 
curbs nausea brought on by chemotherapy or HIV/AIDS drugs, and stimulates 
the appetite of people who have lost interest in eating as a result of 
their conditions or medications.

But anecdotal evidence doesn't cut it when you are asking a government to 
allow large numbers of ill people to buy and smoke what is still an illegal 
substance.

So Health Canada has authorized research to gather clinical evidence that 
may have implications for Canadian policy, and that will likely be 
scrutinized by governments outside Canada as well.

The current study is a pilot to gather information that will be used to 
design a larger, multi-centre clinical trial. The pilot phase, involving 32 
participants with HIV/AIDS, is expected to last about a year.

All participants will have smoked marijuana before. Because there is little 
consensus on any risks associated with marijuana use, researchers can't 
ethically ask people to take the drug for the first time for a study.

But only people who haven't used the drug in the previous 30 days will be 
eligible to take part. That's to ensure there are no lingering effects of 
non-study marijuana in their systems.

Over a two-month period, each participant will be given three supplies of 
varying strengths of marijuana plus a placebo. They will be asked to use 
each for a period of one week and will not be informed which is which.

Throughout the study they will keep a diary detailing how much they smoked, 
how they felt, and how much and what they ate.

After using one strength for a week, they will be asked to go a week 
without smoking marijuana, to cleanse the drug from their systems.

Participants will be barred from using non-study marijuana during the trial 
and will be tested to ensure they are honouring that rule. Street marijuana 
contains compounds not found in study-grade marijuana, Gough explained.

Although Canada is in the process of developing its own supply of 
study-grade marijuana, the crop - being grown in an underground facility in 
Manitoba - isn't ready for use. The marijuana for this study comes from the 
U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse, currently the only producer of 
research-grade marijuana in North America.
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