San Mateo, CA: Approximately one out of four patients suffering from HIV has smoked marijuana within the past month to relieve symptoms of the disease, according to clinical findings published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
Twenty-three percent of the 252 participants in the study responded that they had smoked medicinal marijuana within the previous month. “Reported benefits included relief from anxiety and/or depression (57%), improved appetite (53%), increased pleasure (33%), and relief of pain (28%),” authors stated.
A similar survey conducted in Canada and presented last November at the Ontario HIV Treatment Network research conference concluded that 29 percent of HIV-positive Ontarians used marijuana therapeutically.
Presently, clinical trials examining the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids in HIV patient populations are ongoing at the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research.
According to a recently published study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, use of inhaled marijuana demonstrates “no major, short-term harmful effects and possibly some beneficial effects … in HIV-infected patients taking protease inhibitors.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-5500. Abstracts of the study, entitled “Patterns of Marijuana Use Among Patients With HIV/AIDS Followed in a Public Health Care Setting,” are available online at:
http://www.lwwonline.com/article.asp?ISSN=1525-4135&VOL=35&ISS=1&PAGE=38