Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2007.2.15

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Weekly News in Audio

February 15, 2007

Industrial Hemp Farming Act" Reintroduced In Congress

Minor Respiratory Complications, No Decrease In Pulmonary Function Associated With Long-Term Marijuana Smoking, Study Says

Colorado: Judge Resigns Rather Than Impose New Pot Penalties

Inhaled Cannabis Significantly Reduces HIV-Associated Neuropathy

DEA Administrative Law Judge Rules Against US Government's Monopoly On Pot Production

Washington, DC:
Industrial Hemp Farming Act" Reintroduced In Congress

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), along with nine Democrat co-sponsors, reintroduced legislation in Congress this week to authorize the state-sanctioned cultivation of industrial hemp for commercial purposes. Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa that contains only minute (less than 1%) amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana.

House Bill 1009, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007, seeks to amend the federal Controlled Substances Act so that cannabis containing only trace amounts of THC is no longer defined as "marihuana" [sic] under the statute. The act grants states the "exclusive authority" to license and regulate the commercial production of industrial hemp.

Currently, several US states have laws authorizing hemp production by licensed cultivators. However, farmers in these states may not produce hemp without federal permission.

According to a 2005 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, "The DEA has been unwilling to grant licenses for growing small plots of hemp for research purposes," even when such research is authorized by state law, because the agency believes that doing so would "send the wrong message to the American public concerning the government's position on drugs."

Passage of HR 1009 would remove this federal barrier and defer exclusive regulatory authority over hemp production to state statutes.

"It is indefensible that the United States government prevents American farmers from growing this crop," Congressman Paul said. "By passing the Industrial Hemp Farming Act the House of Representatives can help American farmers and reduce the trade deficit all without spending a single taxpayer dollar."

According to the CRS, "The United States is the only developed nation in which industrial hemp is not an established crop." Farmers in Canada and the European Union grow hemp commercially for fiber, seed, and oil for use in a variety of industrial and consumer products, including food.

Hemp fiber and hemp-based products may be legally imported to the United States in compliance with several economic treaties, including NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).

West Haven, CT:
Minor Respiratory Complications, No Decrease In Pulmonary Function Associated With Long-Term Marijuana Smoking, Study Says

Long-term smoking of cannabis is associated with an elevated risk of respiratory complications, including an increase in cough, sputum production, and wheezing, but not a decline in pulmonary function, according to a review published in the February issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Investigators at the Yale University School of Medicine conducted a systematic review of studies published between 1966 and 2005 that assessed the effects of marijuana smoking on pulmonary function and respiratory complications.

The data failed to show an association between long-term marijuana smoking and airflow obstruction (emphysema), as measured by airway hyperreactivity, forced expiratory volume (FEV), and other measures, investigators reported. Short-term use of cannabis was associated with bronchodilation.

Investigators did find that long-term marijuana smoking was associated with an increased risk of certain respiratory complications -- including cough, bronchitis, phlegm, and wheezing. Most of these complications persisted even after researchers adjusted for tobacco smoking.

Previous reviews of long-term cannabis smoking have noted similar respiratory complications, though an association between cannabis use and lung and/or upper aerodigestive tract (UAT) cancers has not been found.

Authors suggested that cannabis inhalation via specialized delivery systems such as vaporizers would likely yield different results.

Cannabis vaporization limits users' intake of respiratory toxins by heating cannabis to a temperature where cannabinoid vapors form (typically around 180-190 degrees Celsius), but below the point of combustion where noxious smoke and associated toxins (e.g., carcinogenic hydrocarbons) are produced (near 230 degrees Celsius). According to clinical trial data published last year in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, vaporization is a "safe and effective" cannabinoid delivery system for individuals desiring the rapid onset associated with inhalation, but who wish to avoid the respiratory risks of smoking.

"The final pulmonal uptake of THC is comparable to the smoking of cannabis, while avoiding the respiratory disadvantages of smoking," investigators in that study reported.

Washington, DC:
Colorado: Judge Resigns Rather Than Impose New Pot Penalties

A Boulder County Municipal Court Judge has resigned from his position to protest a pending ordinance that would enact new citywide pot penalties.

Lafayette Municipal Court Associate Judge Lenny Frieling resigned from the bench after eight years following the city council's interim approval of an ordinance to make minor marijuana possession offenses punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail. Under Colorado law, minor pot violations are punishable by a $100 fine and no jail time.

"Since you have seen fit to increase the penalty for cannabis possession, ... I find that I am morally and ethically unable to sit as a judge for the city," Frieling wrote in his resignation letter. Frieling is a lifetime member of NORML and serves on the organization's legal committee.

The Lafayette City Council is scheduled to hold a final hearing on the proposed ordinance next week.

San Francisco, CA:
Inhaled Cannabis Significantly Reduces HIV-Associated Neuropathy

Cannabis significantly reduces HIV-associated neuropathic pain compared to placebo, and possesses an acceptable margin of safety for use, according to clinical trial data to be published in the journal Neurology.

Investigators at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California's Pain Clinical Research Center assessed the efficacy of inhaled cannabis on HIV-associated sensory neuropathy in 50 volunteers participating in a five-day double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Researchers reported that smoking low-grade cannabis (3.56 percent THC) three times daily reduced patients' pain by 34 percent.

"Thirteen of 25 patients randomized to cannabis cigarettes had >30 percent reduction in pain from baseline to end of treatment versus 6 of 25 patients receiving placebo cigarettes," authors wrote. A 30 percent reduction in pain is considered to be a clinically significant amount of pain relief.

Investigators added: "Smoking the first cannabis cigarette reduced chronic pain ratings by a median of 72 percent versus a reduction of 15 percent with placebo [zero THC] cigarettes. On day five, just prior to smoking the last cigarette, median ratings of current chronic pain intensity were lower in the cannabis group than in the placebo group. Smoking the last cigarette further reduced chronic pain ratings 51 percent in the cannabis group versus five percent in the placebo group."

They concluded: "Smoked cannabis was well tolerated and effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated neuropathy [in a manner] similar to oral drugs used for chronic neuropathic pain."

The lead investigator of the study, Donald Abrams of San Francisco General Hospital, initially sought federal approval to assess the potential medical efficacy of cannabis in HIV patients in 1994, but was repeatedly denied access to the US government1s supply of research-grade marijuana. Today's study is one of the first US-led clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of smoked cannabis to take place in nearly two decades.

The University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research sponsored the trial.

Previous clinical trials assessing the use of cannabinoids as analgesics have demonstrated that they can significantly reduce the neuropathy associated with multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Neuropathic pain affects an estimated one percent of the world's population and is typically unresponsive to both opioids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen.

Washington, DC:
DEA Administrative Law Judge Rules Against US Government's Monopoly On Pot Production

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled Monday that the private production of cannabis for research purposes is "in the public interest." Her ruling affirms that the DEA in 2004 improperly rejected an application from the University of Massachusetts (UMass) at Amherst to manufacture cannabis for FDA-approved research.

Bittner opined: "I conclude that granting Respondent's application would not be inconsistent with the Single Convention, that there would be minimal risk of diversion of marijuana resulting from Respondent's registration, that there is currently an inadequate supply of marijuana available for research purposes, that competition in the provision of marijuana for such purposes is inadequate, and that Respondent has complied with applicable laws and has never been convicted of any violation of any law pertaining to controlled substances. I therefore find that Respondent's registration to cultivate marijuana would be in the public interest."

Currently, all federally approved research on marijuana must utilize cannabis supplied by and grown under contract with the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The UMass-Amherst proposal sought to provide clinical investigators with an alternative, independent source of cannabis for FDA-approved clinical trials.

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre praised the decision. "Judge Bittner's ruling is an important first step toward breaking the US government's long-standing monopoly regarding the cultivation of research-grade cannabis. Clinical investigators and drug development researchers who no longer wish to conduct trials using NIDA's inferior strains of cannabis may one day have access to other, legal alternatives."

In recent years, several US researchers have criticized NIDA's unwillingness to provide cannabis for clinical protocols seeking to investigate the drug's medical uses. In 2004, the agency's director Nora Volkow stated that it is "not NIDA's mission to study the medical uses of marijuana."

NORML Board Member Rick Doblin -- Executive Director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) -- one of the respondents in the case, said: "This is a major step to getting us to do the scientific research that the government has been blocking for the past 30 years. If the government says no [to the judge's ruling,] the hypocrisy of their approach will help fuel efforts for [additional] state medical marijuana reforms."

The DEA has 20 days to challenge Judge Bittner's decision. The decision then goes before DEA Deputy Administrator Michele Leonhart, who can still elect to set aside the ruling. A spokesman for the agency told the Associated Press that they are reviewing the opinion.

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