We just might want to participate. If you have a teaching hospital in your state you can contact that institution. There are also some free standing clinical research centers that do clinical trials and they will usually have community advertising. There are clinical trials going on at UC Davis, UC San Francisco, and Stanford. There are cooperative group trials, individual institutional trials, and pharmaceutical trials.
Clinical trials are important to demonstrate the effectiveness of treatment.
Do you know if the new diet meds will help. I'm sorry to say that I do not know anything about Meridia. My suggestion is to cut your portions in half. I know that is not an easy thing to do, but does skirt the issue of diet meds. You might want to post your message there.