cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Patch Research For Cancer Patients





Marijuana Patch Research For Cancer Patients
Posted by FoM on January 19, 2000 at 15:28:38 PT
By Michael Gormley, Associated Press
Source: Boston Globe
Someday a ''marijuana patch'' slapped against the skin may help ease the suffering of cancer patients being treated with chemotherapy. Research beginning at the Albany College of Pharmacy aims to do that through the American Cancer Society's first grant in the field, which officials will announce Thursday. 
The patch could ease the pain, nausea and vomiting patients can suffer while undergoing chemotherapy, said Gail Tyner-Taylor of the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey. The $361,000 grant over three years will go to Dr. Audra Stinchcomb, assistant professor at the college, said Annmarie Gregory, spokeswoman for the 119-year-old college. Dr. Stinchcomb's field of research involves medications transmitted through the skin. There is no patch now, but the research will explore whether such a patch is feasible. The idea is similar to nicotine patches used as a way to deliver controlled doses of nicotine to help people quit smoking tobacco. ''This goes with the theme that the federal government will do just about anything to get away from `whole smoke' marijuana'' in medical use, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C. ''This is a way to assuage opponents.'' To provide marijuana to patients while avoiding even a step toward legalization of the smoking of marijuana, St. Pierre said methods of delivery have been tested that include pills, suppositories, eye drops and ear drops. There's even been some talk of creating a marijuana vapor. The problem is that smoking is a faster way to get the drug into the system, an important factor in controlling nausea, he said. Further, he noted that pills are not a smart way of getting medication to someone who is vomiting. ''The American Cancer Society has always been on record against people smoking tobacco and marijuana,'' he said, and that creates an incentive for even the nonprofit group to develop a system other than smoking. That, he said, has kept people suffering needlessly who could benefit from marijuana, only because the way to provide the drug can't get past the politics. NORML and other advocates say a March 1991 report from the Institute of Medicine, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences that advises government, proves part of their point. Responding to a request by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Institute of Medicine concluded that the active ingredients in marijuana can ease pain, nausea and vomiting of cancer. It also agreed that the most effective medical use of smoked marijuana was in battling nausea for chemotherapy patients a method sometimes more effective for some patients than traditional prescriptions. But the scientists also found marijuana causes occasional disorientation and other ill effects. The report also notes that smoking marijuana can increase the risk of cancer, lung damage and in women lead to low-birth weight babies. Traditional concerns about marijuana included dependence in some users and withdrawal symptoms in others. A half-dozen states have offered ballot measures to legalize marijuana as medication, but the drug is banned by federal law and doctors hesitate to prescribe it, even in states that legalized its medical use. In October, Republican U.S. Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio introduced legislation to overturn a referendum in which District of Columbia voters overwhelmingly approved legalization of marijuana for medical uses. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)Published: January 19, 2000© Copyright 2000 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, Inc. Related Web Sites:The IOM Reporthttp://books.nap.edu/html/marimed/NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on January 19, 2000 at 15:52:50 PT
Now here's some real reporting!
A rare event; the Globe interviews an articulate head of a *real* public service organization that succintly puts the blame for the awful suffering many Americans endure squarely where it belongs. And shows in glaringly simple detail who, what, where, how and why.Now, let's see what contortions the spin doctors at ONDCP undergo to refute these very simple truths; if they had to do physically what they do verbally, they'd have to bend backwards with a half-twist. Ol' Barry could get a job as a sideshow freak at the circus: McCaffrey, the Human Pretzel!
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