Home | Community | Message Board

Magic-Mushrooms-Shop.com
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   Bridgetown Botanicals Bridgetown Botanicals   Kraken Kratom Kratom Capsules for Sale

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
OfflineYthanA
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Male User Gallery

Registered: 08/08/97
Posts: 18,774
Loc: NY/MA/VT Borderlands Flag
Last seen: 2 hours, 22 minutes
Pennsylvania wants to lead research into pot's curative properties * 1
    #23520891 - 08/08/16 12:49 AM (7 years, 5 months ago)

Pennsylvania wants to lead research into pot's curative properties
mcall.com

Colorado is known nationally as the leader in recreational marijuana use.

Pennsylvania would like to be a national leader in a different cannabis category: medical research.

The state's new medical marijuana law creates eight special permits that would be used for clinical research studies. It's the only state law with such a provision.

The law also creates a publicly funded, state-administered research program for studying marijuana's effectiveness in treating conditions that qualify under the law.

"This is the first time there has been any responsibility taken for improving the science behind medical cannabis," said Dr. Charles V. Pollack Jr., director of the newly created Center for Medical Cannabis Education and Research at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

There is a serious shortage of legitimate clinical research, he and other experts say.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, "Researchers have not conducted enough large-scale clinical trials that show that the benefits of the marijuana plant [as opposed to its cannabinoid ingredients] outweigh its risks in patients it is meant to treat."

The primary reason for the research shortage is the Drug Enforcement Administration's classification of marijuana as a Schedule I illegal substance with no approved medical applications. That makes researching it difficult, especially for medical institutions that depend on federal funding and fear performing marijuana research could jeopardize it, Pollack said.

To determine how to implement the research component, the state Health Department is seeking guidance from a newly formed physicians work group, Secretary Karen Murphy said in July. There are serious questions about how the program will get around or comply with those federal restrictions.

"Without a major change in federal policy, I just don't think it can work," said Becky Dansky, legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, which is focused on ending the prohibition of marijuana.

For example, under DEA rules, all marijuana research must use plants grown at the government's only authorized producer: the University of Mississippi, which is contracted through NIDA. That's because a series of international narcotics treaties dating to 1961 have been interpreted as limiting participating countries to one officially sanctioned marijuana grower for research.

The state's creation of up to eight academic clinical research centers would appear to conflict with that.

But the U.S. State Department suggested recently that licensing more than one producer would not put the U.S. in violation of the treaties, and a group of eight U.S. senators, including Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, have urged the DEA to loosen its restrictions.

DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno would only say that under current rules, all marijuana used for medical research must be procured from the University of Mississippi growing operation, and that DEA is taking steps to "make applying for permits to do research easier."

The agency has approved 350 researchers to conduct research on marijuana, she said. That includes 17 studies on human subjects using smoked marijuana.

"Researchers can and are presently conducting research on marijuana and other Schedule I controlled substances," she said. "DEA supports and promotes additional research and has never denied a Food and Drug Administration-approved scientific study."

Pennsylvania's law sets up a state-based research program funded by a 5 percent tax on medical marijuana. Under the program, the state would obtain approval from DEA and U.S. Food and Drug Administration to study treatment of specific conditions. Then it would solicit university and health system researchers to run the studies.

University of Pennsylvania researcher Marcel Bonn-Miller is one of a limited number of U.S. scientists researching medical cannabis. With grant funding from Colorado and approval from the FDA and DEA, he's examining marijuana's effectiveness in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, using plants produced by the University of Mississippi.

He finds the state's creation of a source of funding promising.

"We are definitely very excited about the Pennsylvania piece," he said. "If we can tap into that to get the work done right with good research doing quality studies that fill gaps, that is needed. We see the gaps and have studies ready to go to fill all of them, but there is no funding."

There also are questions about the state-directed program, including who would produce marijuana for that research, said Michael Bronstein, lead consultant with the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp.

There is some federal funding for research. The National Institutes of Health funded 49 research studies on the therapeutic effects of marijuana on medical conditions in fiscal year 2015 at a cost of $21 million. The bulk of the $111 million in marijuana research the NIH funded was spent on studies looking primarily at the drug's harmful effects or the social effects of laws legalizing marijuana.

It's unclear if any of the Lehigh Valley's health-care institutions will take part in clinical research on marijuana, though Lehigh Valley Health Network is among those participating in the Health Department's Medical Marijuana Physician Workgroup, according to a news release. To conduct research, they would have to apply to participate in a state-funded study or find a grower/producer partner to apply for an academic clinical research center license to produce marijuana to conduct its own research.

Dr. Bruce D. Nicholson, medical director of LVHN's Division of Pain Medicine, said the new law presents an opportunity for expanding research.

"As soon as the bill passed, there was a committee formed to understand better how we can integrate marijuana therapy into our recommendations for pain management," Nicholson said. "Another area was a subcommittee to see how we can take advantage of potential research opportunities. That is absolutely one of the goals we have in mind for the Lehigh Valley Health Network, to become a research center."

St. Luke's University Health Network has a partnership with Temple University Medical School and could get involved that way. Temple University is engaged in preliminary discussions with industry partners about potential research projects, but it's too early to say if St. Luke's would have a role, said Michele Masucci, Temple's vice president for research administration.

"We believe we can leverage our world-class research faculty, facilities and clinical expertise to advance knowledge related to medical marijuana in areas such as substance abuse, drug discovery and treatment of patients with chronic conditions," Masucci said.

The Sydney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University lobbied for the research provision and is expected to get involved in some fashion, said attorneys and legislative officials involved with drafting the legislation.

Jefferson considers medical marijuana potentially beneficial and recognizes that additional research on its uses and administration is needed, spokeswoman Gianna DeMedio said. It provided commentary to lawmakers on the research provisions in the legislation.

"Jefferson is contemplating how best to engage its faculty and deploy its know-how to further advance knowledge in this burgeoning field," she said.

What's the attraction?

Pennsylvania's law will open a world of research opportunities, said Justin Moriconi, a Philadelphia attorney who specializes in medical cannabis law. But it also could turn out to be highly lucrative for the medical schools that win the right to take part. That's because as part of their research, medical schools will be able to develop treatments using specific concentrations of the many substances in cannabis that can be tailored to treat certain ailments.

"Almost always the universities will hold the patent and then they are the ones that are able to license it out," Moriconi said.

Patent applications in the world of medical cannabis are rare, but growing.

Regulations are still being written by the state Health Department, but to get involved as a clinical research center, medical schools and hospitals that participate will need a partner that will grow, process and dispense medical marijuana to the institutions or their patients.

That partnership likely would be a stand-alone entity, in an effort to insulate the hospital and medical school partner from the threat of lost federal funding. The law sets a high bar, requiring applicants for the eight licenses to have at least $15 million in capital.

"We wanted serious, very responsible people and we wanted a lot of skin in the game," said Tom Dymek, majority executive director of the state House Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin, championed the medical research portion of the legislation.

Many of the entities interested in partnering with the state's research hospitals are out of state, with experience growing and processing cannabis, Moriconi said. They have been busily contacting major players including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple and Jefferson medical schools.

"These universities live on patents and the fact that there are hardly any in this space, they are just salivating," he said.

The processors likely would get the exclusive right to sell the marijuana strains being researched by the medical schools, Moriconi said. If a particular strain of marijuana is shown to be effective for epilepsy, for example, the processor could be the exclusive seller for a defined stretch of time.

The real payoff for clinical grower/processors and the hospitals and universities that get involved with research in Pennsylvania could be years down the road if federal legislation makes medical marijuana available throughout the United States, said Brett Roper, a consultant with Medicine Man Technology, a marijuana industry consultant.

The level of interest in Pennsylvania's medical research provisions is likely because institutions want a head start if the federal government takes that step, Roper said.

How would federal law apply to those processors and their health system partners? Bonn-Miller, the University of Pennsylvania researcher, said he assumes producers would need a federal license from the DEA to produce medical marijuana for their affiliated research institutions.

A spokesman for the Health Department said it's too early to say because state regulations are still being written, though temporary regulations currently being drafted will provide more details.

Pennsylvania attorneys studying the state law admit it conflicts with federal law.

Dymek said the goal is to create a medical research apparatus. If tweaks are necessary to meet federal research requirements, they can be dealt with down the road.

The U.S. lags other countries in medical marijuana research, said Steve Hoenstine, spokesman for state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, who championed medical marijuana legalization. That, he said, is something Pennsylvania intends to change.

"We need to do research on medical marijuana that isn't hamstrung at the federal level," Hoenstine said. "Until the feds are on board with that, it is tough."


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   Bridgetown Botanicals Bridgetown Botanicals   Kraken Kratom Kratom Capsules for Sale


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Santa Cruz Vehicle Stop Leads To Pot Bust motamanM 2,617 1 05/04/03 09:59 PM
by Hans_Moleman
* Wrong number leads to pot arrests Bavet 3,848 8 03/09/03 08:08 PM
by Dobie
* Smelly cash leads to pot bust veggieM 1,360 6 04/08/05 04:36 AM
by MAIA
* Pittsburgh head shop crackdown leads to 55 U.S. arrests Lana 6,315 7 03/28/03 07:51 PM
by Jammer
* Four Canadian Mounties killed in pot raid veggieM 4,478 13 05/01/06 12:50 PM
by Microcosmatrix
* Formaldehyde-laced marijuana becoming big problem in Jersey veggieM 15,050 18 08/15/05 05:01 PM
by Schwip
* Boston, Boulder lead nation in marijuana use veggieM 2,493 16 07/06/05 05:00 AM
by Suffer
* Hearings Begin Today in ACLU Challenge to Government Obstruction of Medical Marijuana Research veggieM 2,490 3 08/24/05 11:28 PM
by veggie

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
570 topic views. 0 members, 9 guests and 2 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.02 seconds spending 0.004 seconds on 11 queries.