San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, November 23, 2000
Mark Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration has agreed to provide government-grown marijuana to 60 patients for a 12-week study that could begin as early as January, said Supervisor Mike Nevin. San Mateo County officials first proposed the project in 1997, and the DEA signed off on the plan yesterday.

The county will be the first local government in the country to distribute the otherwise illegal drug.

"What we could end up with is scientific proof that this is a medicine that should be prescribed by doctors. It's in the spirit of Proposition 215," said Nevin, referring to the 1996 California initiative that legalized medicinal marijuana.

Backers see the study as both a way to find out whether marijuana relieves pain and promotes appetite as well as proponents maintain, and to see whether patients can follow a strict regimen on the drug.

The drug will be given to HIV and AIDS patients suffering from neurological problems. The research will be led by Dr. Dennis Israelski, chief of infectious diseases and AIDS medicine at San Mateo County Hospitals and Clinics. Israelski will also be in charge of selecting participants. Those selected for the study will receive marijuana cigarettes from the San Mateo County Health Center. Their regimen will be strictly monitored, with participants required to keep a log of their marijuana use and to turn in cigarette ends during doctor visits.

County health officials also will make at-home visits.

Nevin, a former San Francisco police inspector, said he opposes decriminalizing marijuana. Nevertheless, he has led the county's effort to win approval for the study, he said, because he believes the drug's medicinal value needs careful examination.

"To disallow the drug to people who need it is a crime," he said.

Supervisors have pledged $500,000 of county money for the project, Nevin said.

If the first 12-week study is successful, the county would like to follow up with more marijuana trials for cancer and glaucoma patients, said Margaret Taylor, director of San Mateo County Health Services. "We hope this is just a beginning," she said.

The DEA was one of several federal agencies that had to approve the study. Others included the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and the Food and Drug Administration.

Taylor said there has been a major change this year in the federal government's willingness to participate in medicinal marijuana studies. Dr. Donald Abrams, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, concluded the first federally approved medical marijuana in July.

Abrams reported that 20 AIDS patients who smoked government-provided marijuana under close supervision for three weeks gained an average of 7.7 pounds more than 22 patients who smoked a placebo.

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