Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - August 30, 2000
Ulysses Torassa, Examiner Medical Writer
UC-San Francisco and UC-San Diego will jointly run the newly formed Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, which has an initial $3 million from the state to test the use of marijuana to treat various ailments and symptoms.
"I hope we get some good science that demonstrates whether marijuana has any medicinal benefits in some key areas," said Donald Abrams, a UCSF oncologist and AIDS expert who will co-direct the center.
Abrams is one of only a few researchers who have been able to study the potential benefits of marijuana. Last month he announced the results of a much-anticipated study of people with HIV who used marijuana in the hospital, showing no harmful effects.
The center will begin accepting grant applications this fall, and expects to award money for research beginning in January.
Funding for the center comes from legislation, sponsored last year by state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara. The bill, which called for a program of objective, quality medical research, stressed that the initiative should not be taken as encouragement for the recreational use of marijuana.
Politicians have been struggling with the issue since at least 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 215, allowing people with a doctor's endorsement to possess and grow marijuana for treatment.
Since then, similar measures have passed in seven other states. And last year, the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, called for more scientific research into the issue, saying there was at least enough evidence to justify using it in some very limited circumstances.
The federal government maintains that marijuana has no therapeutic value, and that whatever benefits patients say they receive from it could also be obtained from legal prescription drugs like Marinol, a pill containing marijuana's active ingredient.
Abrams pointed out that marijuana has been used medicinally around the world for 4,000 years and was available by prescription in the United States until 1942.
The center has identified four key areas where marijuana may prove beneficial:
Loss of appetite and weight loss due to HIV infection and other illnesses. Chronic pain from injuries, AIDS and other diseases.
Nausea associated with cancer and its treatment.
Muscle spasticity caused by diseases like multiple sclerosis.
"There are probably other agents that may be more active against many of the conditions, but if there is a person who gets relief from nothing else, then that's important to know," Abrams said.
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