Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The San Francisco Examiner - Thursday, Oct. 9, 1997
Lisa M. Krieger, Examiner Medical Wrtier
The research project, run by Dr. Donald Abrams and his team of scientists at UC-San Francisco, will pay volunteers $1,000 to be hospitalized for 25 days and either smoke pot, take a tablet form of the drug or take a placebo.
They're seeking an unusual group of recruits: former or current pot smokers who aren't afraid to inhale, don't mind hospital food, happily share bedrooms and are content with confinement.
They also have to be on an anti-viral regimen of a combination of AIDS drugs, including the potent new protease inhibitor Crixivan (indinavir).
"This is a good study," said Abrams of the $1 million, two-year project, titled "Short Term Effects of Cannabanoids in HIV Patients."
"It is well-focused, with a sophisticated statistical analysis," he said.
Earlier proposals by Abrams and his team were rejected by three federal government agencies: the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Drug Enforcement Administration and, most recently, the National Institutes of Health.
Officials were also unwilling to give him government-grown marijuana.
The government's unwillingness to sanction studies has hindered marijuana research.
By passing Proposition 215 last November, California voters have already decided that seriously ill people can legally treat their suffering by smoking marijuana. However, there was no scientific evidence to support marijuana smoking. All favorable reports have been merely anecdotal.
Abrams and his co-researchers, veterans of dozens of successful studies, pushed hard to settle the issue.
The new approval by the National Institute on Drug Abuse ends a four-year battle by Abrams to study the effects of marijuana.
There is new urgency to conduct the study, said Abrams, because marijuana and anti-viral drugs are both metabolized by the same liver enzyme system. If pot concentrates the AIDS drugs, they could be toxic; if reduced, they could be ineffective.
The goal is to study the interactions of the drugs. Researchers will also monitor the influence of pot on HIV levels, immune system health and hormones.
Additionally, the scientists will count calories, pounds and the number of trips to the refrigerator.
Volunteers are divided into three groups: real pot, a synthetic THC drug called Marinol, or placebo. They'll take the agent three times a day, at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In a waiver of UCSF's tough anti-smoking policy, the pot smokers will be offered special ventilated rooms. Their pot comes from the government farm in Mississippi, with mid-potency 3.9 percent THC.
"Prior marijuana smoking experience is required, so they know what to expect and don't freak out," said Abrams. "We don't want to have to sit there, holding their hands."
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