From: jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: marijuana
Date: 28 Aug 92 06:01:51 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Note: Copyright 1992, Dan R. Greening. Non-commercial reproduction allowed.
Archive-Number: 6041

In article <1992Aug26.124552.15606@cs.ucla.edu> dyer@arktos.spdcc.com wrote,
quoting in news something I sent to him in email - naughty, naughty: 

>
>	There was an article in a local paper recently (which unfortunately I can't
>	find) which said that the FDA, or possibly the DEA, has decided to stop
>	approving applications for the use of marijuana as an investigational drug.
>	The article mentioned that very few people had ever been approved (fewer
>	than 20, I think). 
>
>It wouldn't be the FDA.  The DEA has to give permission for
>experiments with C-I drugs.
>
>	Dronabinol, which seems to be basically THC, is not the drug they were
>	talking about.  People who have tried both claim that it's not as effective
>	as real marijuana, probably because it doesn't have what the manufacturer
>	considered contaminants. 
>
>Yes, it's a different drug, and it has a different method of
>delivery (usually).  In that sense, it should be evaluated on
>its own merits.
>
>	Personally, I think it was just another misguided part of the "war on
>	drugs" (of which I don't approve - I think the DEA's budget would be better
>	spent on well-baby care, Head Start, and job training). 
>
>No argument here.  But the analogy with prednisone given to dogs
>is completely faulty.  You can bet that the DEA wouldn't have
>allowed Millie the dog to receive marijuana either.  :-)
>This is not an issue of an _unapproved_ drug being used,
>it's an issue of an _illegal_ drug (considered a drug of
>abuse) being used.

I haven't found the article I referred to, but I found an earlier article,
part of which is quoted here: 
 
----------
AIDS Patient to Get Legal *Marijuana* for Pain Relief

Los Angeles Times (LT) - TUESDAY December 19, 1989
United Press International

    WASHINGTON - The federal government for the first time has approved the
legal use of *marijuana* for an AIDS patient to test reduction of *nausea*,
vomiting and pain caused by the disease and its treatment, officials said
Monday.

    Under the license, approved Wednesday by the Food and Drug
Administration, a 33-year-old Texan, identified only as Steve because of
patient confidentiality rules, will receive prescription *marijuana* from
the government's stock, controlled by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

    He joins a handful of other patients with cancer, glaucoma and multiple
sclerosis who have obtained medical access to the drug in order to treat
elements of their diseases or alleviate harsh effects of therapy.
----------

It appears that marijuana has been approved for legal use in the US by the
FDA, under limited circumstances.  If my memory of the more recent article
serves me correctly, none of the people currently licensed to use marijuana
are PWA's. 
 
-- 

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Jack Hamilton   jfh@netcom.com   P. O. Box 281107   SF, CA   94128-1107
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids