MAPS: Donald in Hawaii

[RickMAPS@xxxxxxx]

The following article from the Saturday, January 23, 1999  Honolulu Star-
Bulletin focuses on the medical marijuana/AIDS wasting study being conducted
by Dr. Donald Abrams, UC San Francisco. MAPS worked with Dr. Donald Abrams for
many years in a struggle to obtain permission for such a study. For
background, check the medical marijuana section of the MAPS web site
http://www.maps.org/mmj/index.html



http://starbulletin.com:80/1999/01/23/news/story5.html

Marijuana, AIDS researcher seeks isle applicants
He praises Cayetano for backing a bill to allow medical marijuana

By Mary Adamski, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

    The doctor who is beginning the first U.S. study of the effects of
    marijuana on AIDS patients said San Francisco doctors treating
    HIV-positive victims "know so many of our patients smoke, we need
    to know if it's helpful or harmful."

    Dr. Donald Abrams' planned research project will focus on the safety
    of medical marijuana use. He described it Thursday to a group of 35
    Honolulu physicians who treat AIDS victims, and yesterday at the
    Honolulu Medical Group.

    "AIDS patients in San Francisco have long told us that marijuana is
    good medicine," said Abrams, assistant director of the San Francisco
    General Hospital AIDS program and a professor of clinical medicine
    at the University of California in San Francisco. He was involved in
    early research into the effects of AIDS and treatments.

    He praised Gov. Ben Cayetano, who has said he will back a bill to
    permit marijuana use under a doctor's supervision. "Perhaps Hawaii
    can pass rational legislation that the rest of the country can follow."

    Voters in six other states have approved ballot initiatives legalizing
    medical marijuana use. But implementation has been thwarted -- by
    Arizona's Legislature, by Colorado's state administration and, in
    California, by state and federal enforcement agencies, which shut
    down dispensaries permitted by local San Francisco authorities.

    A total of 64 subjects are being sought for the research project, which
    will seek information on marijuana in combination with
    virus-suppressing medication taken by AIDS patients. It also will look
    at marijuana's effect on appetite, energy, weight and body
    composition.

    Hawaii applicants would be welcome, he said. A subject must be an
    AIDS patient who is taking protease inhibitors and has previously used
    marijuana "so they know what to expect." Interested persons should
    call (415) 502-5705.

    The participants will be paid $1,000 to stay in the hospital for 25 days.
    Some will smoke three marijuana cigarettes per day; others will take a
    pill containing synthetic THC, marijuana's primary active ingredient;
    and others will take a placebo.

    "In a year we'll actually have some facts instead of anecdotes," said
    Dr. David McEwan of Honolulu, founder of the Life Foundation.

    "People tell us what they hear from others. We really need to know if
    this works," said Dr. Brian Issell, director of the Cancer Research
    Center of Hawaii and a University of Hawaii professor of medicine.
    "Does it help and who does it help -- I really hope we can find out."

    Abrams said the Food and Drug Administration approved his study in
    1994, the year he proposed it, but he was thwarted by the National
    Institute on Drug Abuse, which controls the legal supply of marijuana
    for research.

    After reconfiguring the scope of the research project, he finally got a
    grant from the National Institutes of Health. "The government gave us
    $1 million and 1,400 joints," he said, in a humorous punch line to his
    chronicle of years of government roadblocks to the research.

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