Research with government-grown marijuana is expected to become more common by December 1999 under new guidelines issued by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Under new rules, NIDA, one of the National Institutes of Health, will sell government marijuana to privately funded scientists whose research proposals have been approved. The Department of Health and Human Services said researchers seeking access to the drug must be involved in studies generally following guidelines from the Institute of Medicine report of March 1999.

Government marijuana is grown on a small plot of land by the University of Mississippi under a contract with NIDA. Previously, only scientists who had won federal grants had access to that marijuana. And only a few such federal studies have been approved.

The new guidelines were created after Cabinet-level discussions among agencies involved in America's war on drugs, including the Department of Health and Human Services, NIH's parent agency, plus the Justice Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The University of Mississippi grows the government-approved marijuana on 1.8 acres at a closely guarded site. A crop is harvested on alternate years. So far that has been more than enough to supply the few approved researchers. If the new guidelines do prompt more research, the agency is prepared to grow more marijuana. The price of this cannabis has not been set, and the drug is not expected to be ready for researchers until December.

In a press release of 27 May NIDA asks for "proposals from qualified organizations having the capability to grow, harvest, extract, analyse, store and manufacture marijuana cigarettes, and distribute cannabis, and marijuana cigarettes to NIH grantees and other researchers to support basic and clinical research."

Chuck Thomas of the Marijuana Policy Project said his group is pleased the guidelines will encourage more research, but he said the action will not help patients in pain who need the drug now. "We're very disappointed that they failed to approve single-patient, compassionate use, as the Institute of Medicine had recommended," Thomas said.

(Sources: Los Angeles Times of 21 May 1999)