11/30/94
On Friday December 9th the fate of medical marijuana research in the United States will be decided for the near future. Dr. Donald Abrams' FDA-approved study of the efficacy of marijuana for treating AIDS Wasting Syndrome has been stymied by the unwillingness of the federal bureaucracy to allow for a legal source of marijuana to perform the study. On December 9th, Dr. Philip Lee of the Dept. of Health & Human Services will hold a meeting (supposedly the final one) to decide whether the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will supply marijuana for the study. NIDA has reluctant to do so, on the (weak) grounds that if the study is successful they will receive additional requests for more marijuana for more studies, which it will then have to budget funds to grow. (This would of course be irrelevant if other government agencies would grant the permits necessary to legally import marijuana using private funds.)
The government's position on this issue is entirely hypocritical. On the one hand they have refused to allow for medicinal availability of marijuana because of a "lack of scientific evidence" of it's medical usefulness, and on the other hand they have prevented the very research that could settle the issue scientifically once and for all from taking place.
It's time to put pressure on NIDA and HHS to let the study go forward.
Please contact:
Dr. Philip Lee
Deputy Secretary for Health
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20201
(202) 690-7694
Dr. Donna Shalala
Secretary for Health
Dept. of Health & Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20201
Ask your Senators, Representatives and state legislators to ask Dr. Lee to have NIDA provide marijuana for the study. They are probably all in the home districts now, and many of them will be having office hours. If you don't know how to reach your Congressmen and Senators, you can find out through the Congressional Switchboard, at (202) 224-3121.
Dr. Abrams' study is being funded by the Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
For more information, contact:
MAPS
1801 Tippah Ave.
Charlotte, NC 28205
(704) 358-9830
(704) 358-1650 (fax)
E-mail: [email protected]
If you really want to splurge, you could buy your Representative a copy of Dr. Lester Grinspoon's book Marihuana, The Forbidden Medicine, which discusses the use of cannabis in treating cancer chemotherapy, glaucoma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, quadriplegia, AIDS, chronic pain, migraine, pruritus, menstrual cramps, labor pain, depression, and other conditions. You can also get medical marijuana activist kits from NORML; call (202) 483-5500 for details or e-mail [email protected].
Remember, your letters have to get to Philip Lee by December 9th to have any impact on this pivotal meeting.
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