Medical Cannabis Research Study in

¶ … Medical Cannabis Research Study In 1999 the University of California was commissioned to begin a scientific research program, the Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR), to "expand the public scientific knowledge on purported usages of marijuana (Grant, Atkinson, Mattison, and Coates, 2010)." The program, conducted by Igor Grant, M.D., J. Hampton Atkinson, M.D., Andrew Mattison, PhD., and Thomas J. Coates, PhD., all of the University of California, San Diego, was concluded and the findings published February 11, 2010, by the University of California, San Diego, Health Sciences.

The question that served as the focus of the study was: "Does marijuana have therapeutic value? (p. 2)" To answer this question, the program approved a total of fifteen studies, including seven clinical trials, and at the time of publication of the program's report, on February, 2010, five clinical trials had been completed, and two continued in progress (p. 2). Five clinical studies were discontinued because there was an insufficient patient population for participation in the cancelled studies (p. 15).

The program and studies conducted under the program had the benefit of being fully funded, and were conducted under the direct supervision qualified medical professionals. In this regard, the studies conducted should be reliable, with the highest levels of clinical methodology having been employed. These are certainly important elements of medical studies. The data yield underwent CMCR review. Scientists from around the nation were engaged to participate in the review process.

Those scientists became members of the Scientific Review Board (SRB), after having been first reviewed for eligibility by the Research Advisory Panel of California (RAP-C), the Office of Public Health and Science of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This comports with the highest level of professionalism, review, and oversight.

It lends credibility to the mission and research objectives by way of a highly developed infrastructure within which to engage scientists and under whose purview the studies were conducted.

The 2010 reports succinctly summarizes the quality of professionalism and the high degree of clinical trial standards maintained saying: "In establishing the University of California CMCR, the California Legislature enabled the creation of what is now arguably a world-class resource for both state-of-the-art clinical trials on medicinal cannabis and its derivatives, and for developing knowledge on the potential and limitations cannabinoid therapeutics for selected indications (p.

16)." The program clinical studies that were subsequently published or submitted for publication covered: Cannabis for Treatment of HIV-Related Peripheral Neuropathy; Vaporization as a Smokeless Cannabis Delivery System; Short-Term Effects of Cannabis Therapy on Spasticity in MS; Placebo-Controlled Double Blind Trial of Medicinal Cannabis in Painful HIV Neuropathy; Analgesic Efficacy of Smoked Cannabis; and Double Blind, Placebo Controlled Trial of Smoked Cannabis on Neuropathic Pain (p. 2). There were separate and distinct populations selected for the study.

For instance, in the study conducted on Cannabis for Treatment of HIV-Related Peripheral Neuropathy, 55 patients were "randomized" and 50 of those randomized patients followed through the complete trial (p. 10). In this particular study, the effects of smoked cannabis as compared wit the results of patients who received and smoked placebos was significant, and showed a 34% reduction in daily pain amongst those patients receiving the cannabis, versus 17% amongst those patients receiving the placebo. The outcome of the studies conducted would suggest that medical use of marijuana for pain is recommended.

The study concluded that there is an absence of pain relieving analgesics available to patients in the classifications studied. The findings as they relate to the efficacy of cannabis for the treatment of spasticity in MS indicate that medicinal marijuana for that purpose is an avenue of treatment for this very difficult to manage condition and the pain associated with the disease (p. 16).

The future of medicinal cannabis as a therapeutic approach to difficult to manage conditions like Parkinson's Disease, MS, and other conditions that have high levels of pain is one that can now be studied with the confidence that such a highly structured program provides the public. Peer reviewed articles on the methodologies and data analysis will inform and advance the scientific and medical communities in developing new cannabinoid therapeutic approaches to disease management.

The study was forthright, and leads the investigator of this research to pursue the many peer reviewed works of the physicians and clinicians involved in the studies and trials. The next step, should it be funded and supported, Phase II, involving drug development is advancing, and will involve hundreds of patient participants. The number of participants.