FOR RELEASE AT 6:00 A.M. EST THURSDAY, FEB. 18, 1999

Unprecedented Statement Comes as Institute of Medicine Prepares to Publish Full Review of Medical Marijuana Science

ADVANCE/ WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Physicians should be allowed to prescribe marijuana as an emergency measure to people with HIV/AIDS without further research, says a letter to be sent February 17^th from the heads of seventeen AIDS organizations to General Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office for National Drug Control Policy. This is the first time that AIDS groups have come together to call for legal, immediate access to marijuana.

Citing a fast-track system that has allowed physicians to prescribe protease inhibitors and other AIDS medications before the completion of clinical trials, the letter calls on McCaffrey to give immediate approval to what they say is another life-saving drug—marijuana.

"(W)e urge you to help break the bureaucratic logjam that is keeping a potentially life-saving medicine, marijuana, virtually inaccessible to thousands of people living with AIDS," says the letter, signed by AIDS Action Council, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Latino Commission on AIDS, National Native American AIDS Prevention Center, AIDS National Interfaith Network, Mothers’ Voices to End AIDS, AIDS Project Los Angeles, and other organizations around the country.

Copies of the letter were also sent to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Office of National AIDS Policy and the U.S. House and Senate Majority and Minority leaders.

The AIDS organizations are urging McCaffrey to make good on an October, 1997 statement to Congress, which said: "If sound medical research demonstrates that there are medical uses for smoked marijuana, there are appropriate and responsive procedures for rescheduling this mind-influencing drug through the time-tested process.

"The FDA has already demonstrated flexibility in accelerating procedures for allowing the use of emerging AIDS-related drugs without jeopardizing science or the public health."

Thousands of Americans with HIV/AIDS use marijuana to relieve the nausea caused by multiple-drug therapies, and to combat the "wasting syndrome" associated with the late, often fatal, stages of AIDS by stimulating appetite. But, with marijuana classed as a highly-controlled Schedule I substance under federal law, most patients use the medicine illegally, risking prosecution and exposure to contaminated products.

In 1996, McCaffrey commissioned the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a full review of the science surrounding medical marijuana. That study is expected to be released next month, and may lead to calls for new research into medical marijuana. Just one clinical trial has been approved by the federal government since 1985.

AIDS organizations say terminally-ill patients cannot afford to wait for years of research to prove something they already know: medical marijuana works.

"Science and compassion should dictate our nation’s policy regarding medical treatment," says the letter. "However, politics has stood in the way of the approval of marijuana as a legal medication, and the full development of a science base leading to FDA approval could still be years away.

"Under these circumstances, making marijuana immediately available on a quasi-experimental basis to people living with AIDS [...], is a moderate step that can add to the federal government’s responsiveness to the epidemic."

(The full text of the letter follows:)

February 17, 1999

To General Barry McCaffrey
Director
Office of National Drug Control Policy

Dear General McCaffrey:

As advocates and care givers for people living with HIV disease and AIDS, we are writing to urge you to help break the bureaucratic logjam that is keeping a potentially life-saving medicine virtually inaccessible to thousands of people living with AIDS and other debilitating illnesses.

That medicine is marijuana. Marijuana’s therapeutic uses are well documented in scientific literature. Recent scientific studies have confirmed what has been reported to us by hundreds of people living with HIV—that marijuana can be safely used to reduce nausea and vomiting, stimulate appetite, and promote weight gain. Marijuana is widely recognized by physicians specializing in AIDS care as an important component of treatment for some patients who suffer from symptoms of advanced-stage HIV disease and the multiple-drug therapies used to manage HIV.

Today, thanks to one federally approved clinical study of marijuana for people living with AIDS, sixty-four patients receive marijuana legally from supplies grown by the federal government. However, thousands of Americans, many of them people living with HIV, use marijuana as a medicine illegally, putting themselves at risk of arrest and prosecution. Because the practice is illegal, most patients use marijuana without medical supervision. Marijuana’s illegality means that patients cannot be sure of obtaining standardized products that are free of contaminants. People should not have to risk their health or jail to receive needed medical care.

For this reason, thirty-five state legislatures have passed laws supporting the use of marijuana as a medicine. In addition, voters in six states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have recently approved ballot measures legalizing the medical use of marijuana within their borders—nearly one in five Americans lives in a state whose voters have approved medical marijuana. Now, the nation is looking to the federal government to begin to show compassion and flexibility on this issue.

You may be aware that the standard Food and Drug Administration approval process has been streamlined for several medications important to people living with HIV disease and AIDS. Drugs shown to fall within an acceptable standard of safety have been made available to patients before completion of all scientific trials proving effectiveness. This special procedure has helped thousands of patients to obtain life-extending benefits from new medications, and has contributed directly to building the science base for such new drugs.

Our request is simple. Just as other promising AIDS medications have been made available prior to final FDA approval, so too should marijuana, when recommended by a physician, be made available to patients who choose to use it.

There is not much question about the relative safety of marijuana—it has been heavily studied around the world. These studies have revealed an important fact: there is no lethal dose of marijuana. Besides this finding, occasional marijuana smoking under controlled circumstances has not been proved to be dangerous. In sum, the known risks of marijuana are clearly within a range of acceptability sufficient to allow individual physicians and patients to monitor its use, and its results. Under these circumstances, making marijuana immediately available on a quasi-experimental basis to people living with AIDS, when their physicians request it, is a moderate step that can add to the federal government’s responsiveness to the epidemic.

We appeal to you, General McCaffrey, because you are in a unique position to provide leadership on this issue. Science and compassion should dictate our nation’s policy regarding medical treatment. However, politics has stood in the way of the approval of marijuana as a legal medication, and the full development of a science base leading to FDA approval could still be years away. We call upon you to be a part of the political solution. We ask that you publicly encourage your colleagues in the administration to respond positively to the scientific and public support for making marijuana medically available.

Sincerely,

SIGNATORIES

Daniel Zingale/Jeff Jacobs
Executive Director/Legislative Director
AIDS Action Council

Regina Aragon
Public Policy Director
San Francisco AIDS Foundation

Herb K. Schultz
Director of Government Affairs
AIDS Project Los Angeles

Martin Ornelas-Quintero
National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Organization
Washington, DC

Julian B. Rush
United Methodist Minister / Colorado AIDS Project
Denver, CO

Mary Margaret Bush
Executive Director
The Center for AIDS Services
Oakland, CA

Donna Rae Palmer
Executive Director
Mobilization Against AIDS
San Francisco, CA

Matt Patrick
Executive Director
Boulder County AIDS Project
Boulder, CO

Kenneth T. South
Executive Director
AIDS National Interfaith Network
Washington, D.C.

Ron Rowell
Executive Director
National Native American AIDS Prevention Center
Oakland, CA

Chris Norwood
Health Force: Women and Men Against AIDS
Bronx, NY

Dennis de Leon
Latino Commission on AIDS
New York, NY

David E. Munar
Director of Public Policy
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Chicago, IL

Trish Moyan Torruella
Executive Director
Mothers Voices to End AIDS
New York, NY

Dr. Pat Hawkins
Associate Executive Director
Whitman-Walker Clinic
Washington, DC

Steven B. Johnson
Director of Public Policy and Communications
Northwest AIDS Foundation
Seattle, WA

Mark D. Garvey
Being Alive Program Specialist
AIDS Project Arizona
Phoenix AZ

Lupe Lopez
Executive Director
People of Color Against AIDS Network
Seattle, WA

cc: Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Jane Henney, director, Food and Drug Administration
Sandra Thurman, director, Office of National AIDS Policy
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) Senate Majority Leader
Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) Senate Minority Leader
Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Speaker of the House
Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) House Majority Leader
Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-MO) House Minority Leader