Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 17:00:45 -0500
From: [c--o--n] at [dsmnet.com] (Carl E. Olsen)
Subject: MPP News 04-27-95

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      APRIL 27, 1995

Clinton Administration Blocks First FDA-Approved
   Marijuana Research in More than a Decade

CONTACT: Rick Doblin, president,
         Multidisciplinary Association tor Psychedelic Studies
         (MAPS).....(704)358-9830
         Robert Kampia, director ot government relations,
         Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).....(202) 462-5747

   Washington, D.C -- After eight months ot delays, the Clinton 
administration has blocked what would have been the first medicinal 
marijuana research proiect in more than a decade.  In a letter dated April 
19, Dr. Alan Leshner, director ot the National Institute on Drug Abuse 
(NIDA), rejected a request for marijuana for FDA-approved research that 
would have begun the scientific investigation of marijuana's effectiveness 
in treating the AIDS wasting syndrome.

   Only eight (8) people in the United States are currently allowed to use 
marijuana for medicine.  They were accepted into the Compassionate 
Investigative New Drug (IND) program during the Carter, Reagan, and Bush 
administrations.  President Bush closed the program in 1992 - and President 
Clinton continued this policy.  Other patients who need marijuana to 
alleviate the nausea and loss of appetite associated with the AIDS wasting 
syndrome and cancer chemotherapy, as well as to treat glaucoma, multiple 
sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic pain, and other ailments must either suffer or 
use marijuana illegally.

   This problem should be resolved through scientific research.  
Unfortunately, the Clinton administration has stalled and blocked such research:

   On July 18, 1994, Dr. Philip Lee, assistant secretary for health, refused 
to allow medical access to maiijuana, claiming that "sound scientific 
studies ... are lacking. ...  [T]here is no evidence to suggest that smoked 
marijuana might be superior to currently available therapies."

   Dr. Donald Abrams, an AIDS researcher at the University ot California at 
San Francisco, subsequently acquired FDA approval for a privately funded 
pilot study to investigate marijuana's effectiveness in improving the 
appetite and promoting weight gain for AIDS patients.

   NIDA Director Alan Leshner, using transparent, specious arguments, has 
now blocked the last remaining step in a three-year process that would allow 
the research to commence -- providing government-grown marijuana through 
NIDA (The federal government is the only legal source of marijuana for 
clinical research.  For the last several decades, NIDA has provided 
marijuana to every FDA-approved research project to study marijuana.)

   "The Clinton administration is apparently so afraid of being associated 
with the 'M' word that they are even willing to block research that could 
prolong AIDS patients' lives," said Rick Doblin, president ot MAPS, who has 
spearheaded the campaign to get this research under way.  "Instead of 
funding research, hundreds of thousands of dollars will now need to be spent 
on political campaigns and defending patients in court -- what a tragic waste."

CONTACT: Alan Leshner, Ph.D., director,
         National Institute on Drug Abuse, U.S. Dept of
         HHS.....(301) 443-6480

                                - END -

MPP MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT
P.O. Box 77492 * WASHINGTON, D.C. 20013



Sincerely,
Carl Olsen
Post Office Box 4091
Des Moines, Iowa 50333
(515) 243-7351
[c--o--n] at [dsmnet.com]
[Carl E  Olsen] at [commonlink.com]
[73043 414] at [compuserve.com]