One Year After Release of NIH Report, Clinton Administration Still Thwarts Medicinal Marijuana Research

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Clinton administration is still stalling a full year after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) expert group recommended policy changes that would have expedited medicinal marijuana research, charged the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

"The Clinton administration will be hard-pressed to oppose the medicinal marijuana voter initiatives in six states this November," said Chuck Thomas, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. "When the drug czar and others say that there should first be more research, the voters will say `sorry, you had your chance.'"

On August 8, 1997, the NIH Ad Hoc Group of Experts released a report on its "Workshop on the Medical Utility of Marijuana," which was conducted on February 19 and 20, 1997. *The report urged the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to make it easier for researchers to obtain NIDA's supply of marijuana.*

NIDA has a monopoly on the legal supply of marijuana for research in the United States. Before scientists can study marijuana's medical benefits, they must ask NIDA for its marijuana. It is now one year since the release of the NIH report, and *NIDA still has not changed its unnecessarily restrictive policy.*

The policy created in 1995 by NIDA Director Alan Leshner requires all researchers to apply for and receive a federal grant from NIH before they can receive NIDA's marijuana -- even if they do not need federal money. If NIH refuses to approve the study, then NIDA will not provide the marijuana.

Pharmaceutical companies do not face this extra hurdle: When they develop new synthetic drugs, they can begin their research as soon as the FDA gives them permission to begin their studies. NIDA's unfair double standard discourages scientists from trying to study medicinal marijuana. Accordingly, one year ago the NIH Ad Hoc Group of Experts recommended the following:

"Whether or not the NIH is the primary source of grant support for a proposed bona fide clinical research study, if that study meets U.S. regulatory standards (U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocol approval and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) controlled substances registration) the study should receive marijuana and/or matching placebo supplied by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)."

"Tens of thousands of seriously ill people nationwide are already risking arrest and imprisonment by using marijuana for medicinal purposes," said Thomas. "Because the FDA-approval route is being blocked by NIDA, the Marijuana Policy Project is urging the American people to pass state and local laws to remove criminal penalties for patients who possess or grow their own medicinal marijuana."

On November 3, initiatives that would allow patients to legally use medicinal marijuana will appear on the ballots in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.