Dr. Donald Abrams of UC-San Francisco learned that his proposal to conduct a pilot study into the use of smoked marijuana in the treatment of the AIDS wasting syndrome was rejected by a peer-review committee of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This means the study cannot proceed because the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) arbitrarily required that it pass the NIH peer-review process to qualify for reciving marijuana from NIDA. This condition has not been previously required of other FDA-approved studies. NIDA retains a monopoly on the legal supply of marijuana for research purposes.
NIAID will send a letter explaining the reason for the rejection in six to eight weeks. At that time, Dr. Abrams will evaluate the comments to see if, in his opinion, they are scientifically justified or politically motivated. A decision regarding the revision and resubmission of the protocol will be made at that time.
NORML board member Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has been working closely with Dr. Abrams for four years to sponsor this study. He noted that this was the second time a specific pilot study proposed by Dr. Abrams to investigate the use of smoked marijuana in the treatment of weight loss in patients suffering from the AIDS wasting syndrome has been rejected by federal health officials.
Although having an initial protocol design extensively reviewed, critiqued, modified, and approved by the both the FDA and the California Research Advisory panel in 1994, Abrams was denied receiving the marijuana necessary for his study by NIDA in April of 1995. After addressing several of NIDA’s concerns — including revising the protocol to an all in-patient study — Abrams resubmitted a grant proposal to NIH on May 1, 1996.
This latest rejection “delays [us] at least a year, if not permanently,” said Doblin. “In 1992, DEA Administrator Robert Bonner stated: ‘Those who insist that marijuana has medical uses would serve society better by promoting or sponsoring more legitimate scientific research.’ All we are asking for is simply to conduct that research.”
“The events of the past weeks in San Francisco make the bankruptcy of the government’s policy glaringly evident,” said California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer. “Why is it easier for your kids to get marijuana than for researchers, physicians, and patients?”
For more information, please contact Rick Doblin of MAPS @ (704) 358-9830 or Allen St. Pierre of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.