Tell Congress to "Have a Heart" for Medical Cannabis Research

In light of long overdue research published this week in Neurology
<http://neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/7/515>, ASA is asking
Congress to "Have a Heart"
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/asa/campaign/?campaign_KEY=6677>

this Valentines Day and to support our call for congressional oversight
hearings to investigate why federal agencies resist full implementation
of the recommendations provided by the Institute of Medicine in their
1999 report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base
<http://books.nap.edu/html/marimed/es.html>.

*Take action today to help advance medical cannabis research!*

For more information about the, please read the Washington Post story
below, which quotes Dr. Barbara T. Roberts, Director of Medical and
Scientific Affairs for Americans for Safe Access.

* Actions to Take:*

*1. Call your U.S Representative* at 202-224-3121. Urge support for
congressional hearings to encourage more medical cannabis research. Find
out who your Representative by visiting the House of Representatives
website <http://www.house.gov> and entering your zip code.

* Call Script:*

Hello, my name is (your name) and I live in (city, state). I am
calling to make sure that Representative ___________ knows about
long-overdue research published this week in Neurology, which indicates
that smoked marijuana effectively reduces chronic neuropathic pain as
well as acute pain for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Seven years ago the federal government issued a gold-standard report
from the Institute of Medicine recommending that more research be
conducted to review the appropriate therapeutic use of cannabis.
Despite these recommendations federal agencies often discourage medical
cannabis research like the study published this week.

I am urging Representative ____________ to "have a heart". Please
support congressional oversight hearings to investigate why federal
agencies have resisted full implementation the Institute of Medicine's
1999 recommendations. Thank you for your time.

*2. E-mail your Senators and Representative
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/asa/campaign/?campaign_KEY=6677>*

and urge support for congressional hearings to investigate why federal
agencies discourage medical cannabis research. Visit ASA's congressional
action site
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/asa/campaign/?campaign_KEY=6677>

to send your letter.

*3. Write a Letter to the Editor:
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/asa/pickMedia.jsp?letter_KEY=658>

*In the past day, more than 100 supporters wrote Letters to the Editor.
There are thousands more of you who have an opinion about the news.
Please make your voice heard by visiting ASA's LTE action page
<http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/asa/pickMedia.jsp?letter_KEY=658>.

When visiting the action page, you will be asked pick your state, then
you can choose from newspapers in your area, and finally you will be
taken to a page with talking points, but please personalize your
letter. Editors do not appreciate receiving several of the same
messages so be sure to make yours unique!

* 4. Become a Member of ASA:
<http://www.americansforsafeaccess.org/Donate> *Take a moment right now
to make a sustaining monthly pledge to defending safe access. Your
monthly pledge of $10, $25, $50, or even $100 will let us know we have
the resources to keep fighting for you!

* 5. Spread the Word: *Forward this message widely to friends,
co-workers, and family to encourage them to join you in the national
movement to protect safe access!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Research Supports Medicinal Marijuana*
*AIDS Patients in Controlled Study Had Significant Pain Relief*

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 13, 2007; Page A14

AIDS patients suffering from debilitating nerve pain got as much or more
relief by smoking marijuana as they would typically get from
prescription drugs -- and with fewer side effects -- according to a
study conducted under rigorously controlled conditions with
government-grown pot.

In a five-day study performed in a specially ventilated hospital ward
where patients smoked three marijuana cigarettes a day, more than half
the participants tallied significant reductions in pain.

By contrast, less than one-quarter of those who smoked "placebo" pot,
which had its primary psychoactive ingredients removed, reported
benefits, as measured by subjective pain reports and standardized
neurological tests.

The White House belittled the study as "a smoke screen," short on proof
of efficacy and flawed because it did not consider the health impacts of
inhaling smoke.

But other doctors and advocates of marijuana policy reform said the
findings, in today's issue of the journal Neurology, offer powerful
evidence that the Drug Enforcement Administration's classification of
cannabis as having "no currently accepted medical use" is outdated.

"This should be a wake-up call for Congress to hold hearings to
investigate the therapeutic use of cannabis and to encourage more
research," said Barbara T. Roberts, a former interim associate deputy
director in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, now
with Americans for Safe Access, which promotes access to marijuana for
therapies and research.

Countless anecdotal reports have suggested that smoking marijuana can
help relieve the pain, nausea and muscular spasticity that often
accompany cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other ailments. But few
well-controlled studies have been conducted.

The new study enrolled 50 AIDS patients with severe foot pain caused by
their disease or by the medicines they take.

The team first measured baseline pain, both subjectively (patients
ranked their pain on a scale of 1 to 100) and with two standardized
tests, one involving a small hot iron held to the skin and another
involving hot chili pepper cream.

Then, for five days, patients lit up at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. using
a calibrated puff method that calls for inhaling for five seconds,
holding one's breath for 10, then waiting 45 seconds before the next.

The cigarettes were kept frozen and locked in a safe, then thawed and
humidified one day before use. Cigarette butts and other debris were
collected, weighed and returned to the safe to ensure no diversion for
recreational purposes.

Grown on the government's official pot farm in Mississippi, the drug was
about one-quarter the potency of quality street marijuana. The inactive
version was chemically cleansed of cannabinoids, the drug's main active
ingredients.

"It smelled like and looked like" normal marijuana, said study leader
Donald I. Abrams, a physician at San Francisco General Hospital, where
the smoking ward was located. Like the patients, Abrams was not told who
had the active pot until the study was over.

Thirteen of 25 patients who smoked the regular marijuana achieved pain
reduction of at least 30 percent, compared with six of 25 who smoked
placebo pot. The average pain reduction for the real cannabis was 34
percent, compared with17 percent for the placebo.

Opioids and other pills can reduce nerve pain by 20 to 30 percent but
can cause drowsiness and confusion, Abrams said. And many patients
complain that a prescription version of pot's main ingredient in pill
form does not work for them.

That was true for Diana Dodson, 50, who received an AIDS diagnosis in
1997 after a blood transfusion.

"I have so many layers of pain I can hardly walk," said Dodson, who was
in the new study. Prescription drugs made her feel worse. "But inhaled
cannabis works," she said.

Patients in the study -- all of whom had smoked pot previously --
reported no notable side effects, though the researchers acknowledged
that people unfamiliar with the drug may not fare as well.

Igor Grant, director of the University of California Center for
Medicinal Cannabis Research, which funded the research, said the study
was probably the best-designed U.S. test of marijuana's medical
potential in decades. He called the results "highly believable."

But David Murray, chief scientist at the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy, called the findings "not particularly persuasive."
The study was relatively small, he said, and it is likely that those who
received the real pot were aware of that, introducing a bias of expected
efficacy.

"We're very much supportive of any effort to ameliorate the suffering of
AIDS patients," Murray said. But even if ingredients in marijuana prove
useful, he added, they ought to be synthesized in a pill to make dosing
more accurate and to minimize lung damage.

Separately, ending a six-year effort, a Massachusetts group learned
yesterday that it had won a legal victory against the DEA in its battle
for federal permission to grow its own cannabis for federally approved
studies, instead of relying on government pot.

In an 87-page opinion, administrative law judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled
that it "would be in the public interest" to allow a University of
Massachusetts researcher to cultivate marijuana under contract to the
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which
sponsors medical research on marijuana and other drugs.

The DEA is not obligated to follow the advice of its law judges, but the
detailed decision should make it difficult for the agency to balk, said
MAPS President Rick Doblin.

--
Rebecca Saltzman
Field Coordinator
Americans for Safe Access
http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is the largest national member-based organization of
patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe
and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.

Join us today... http://www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org

Headquarters
1322 Webster St Suite 402
Oakland, CA 94612
P: 510-251-1856 ext. 308 F: 510-251-2036