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Feds Begin to Bend on Medical Marijuana

SANTA MONICA, May 21 - Americans for Medical Rights (AMR), the sponsors of several state ballot initiatives permitting the medical use of marijuana, today praised a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy that opens the door to scientific research on the medical potential of marijuana and its unique compounds, known as cannabinoids.

Bill Zimmerman, executive director of AMR, called the announcement an important first step. "It seems the ship of state is beginning to turn on the issue of medical use of marijuana," Zimmerman said. "Today’s news shows the federal government is finally learning from what scientists and physicians have been saying, and what the voters of several states have recently underscored: marijuana helps many patients, and we need to find ways to get its benefits to the seriously ill."

The NIH announcement follows up on recommendations from a landmark March 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which confirmed that marijuana is valuable for many patients for whom other medications do not work. The report urged the federal government to make a commitment to new medical marijuana research.

Zimmerman, who is also author of, "Is Marijuana the Right Medicine for You?" (Keats, 1998), said, "Today’s announcement shows the first real commitment to medical marijuana research in a generation. A medical marijuana policy that promises to be friendly to physicians, patients and scientific research will be new in every respect."

• Legal-access program not outlined yet

Despite his overall praise for the new NIH policy, Zimmerman was critical of its failure to address the pressing issue of legal access to marijuana for patients.
(Marijuananews note: AMR is in a good position to critique the government’s actual behavior.)

Zimmerman said. "In March, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended the creation of an experimental access program to provide smokable marijuana to seriously ill patients who have not benefited from standard medications. The IOM investigators called this an important, interim step for patients who have no real alternatives while new medical marijuana research gets under way."

Zimmerman said, "We have not forgotten this key policy recommendation, and we will fight to see it implemented as soon as possible. Such a program represents the only reliable way patients across the country can obtain safe, legal supplies of medical marijuana for the next several years, before all the new studies are completed."

• Political efforts still necessary

Noting that an increased governmental commitment to scientific research does not solve the issues in the medical marijuana debate, Zimmerman said, "We will continue with our political efforts to open access to medical marijuana, beginning with a ballot initiative campaign in Maine this November, and continuing with new state ballot initiatives in the year 2000. All of our efforts are meant to maximize the number of seriously ill patients who have medical marijuana as an option."