San Mateo county officials will apply for federal permission to begin medical marijuana trials on human patients. Officials seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). NIDA is the only legal supplier of marijuana for research purposes.
Last year, the Redwood City Board of Supervisors appropriated $50,000 to conduct medical marijuana research. The proposed three-year study hopes to include between 500 and 1,000 patients.
County officials anticipate a federal response to their request by April 1, 1999.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, NIDA provided medical marijuana to state-sponsored research programs in seven states: California, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, and Vermont. Through these programs, thousands of cancer patients found relief from legal marijuana cigarettes. NIDA discontinued supplying medical marijuana to these programs in the late 1980s, and most recently refused requests from the Massachusetts and Washington Boards of Health to allow those states to permit medical marijuana research.
“NORML strongly supports San Mateo county’s efforts to study the efficacy of whole smoked marijuana as a therapeutic agent,” NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said. “Unfortunately, NIDA and other federal agencies have established a history of regularly denying requests for medical marijuana.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.