Americans for Safe Access Activist Newsletter

Defending Patients’ Access to Medical Marijuana

March 2007 Volume 3, Issue 2

ASA Files Challenge to Misinformation On Medical Cannabis

The federal government's continuing
denials of the medical efficacy of cannabis
may soon come to an end, thanks to action
by Americans for Safe Access. On February
21, ASA filed a lawsuit in federal court
demanding that the Food and Drug
Administration and the Department of
Health and Human Services stop spreading
misinformation on medical cannabis and cor-
rect the information they have published.

"The FDA position on medical cannabis is

incorrect, dishonest and a flagrant violation
of laws requiring the government to base
policy on sound science," said Joe Elford,
Chief Counsel for ASA.

The ASA lawsuit charges the federal agen-

cies with a violation of the little-known ASA staff and one of the named patients in front of the federal courthouse in Oakland after filing the HHS lawsuit. L-R
Data Quality Act (DQA). That law requires Rebecca Saltzman, William Dolphin, Joe Elford, Delisa Jones, Steph Sherer, Jacqueline Patterson, Kris Hermes, Noah Mamber.
federal agencies to rely on sound science in
the information they disseminate and the ues to play politics with the lives of patients California, San Francisco study demonstrat-
policies they make. The DQA also allows cit- desperately in need of pain relief," said ASA ing the effectiveness of medical cannabis in
izens to challenge government information Executive Director Steph Sherer. "Americans treating pain in people living with HIV/AIDS.
believed to be inaccurate or based on faulty, for Safe Access is filing this lawsuit on med-
(continued, p2)
unreliable data. The ASA case specifically ical cannabis to demand that the FDA stop
challenges the government position that holding science hostage to politics." RESEARCH UPDATES
"marijuana has no accepted medical value."
The court filing is the outcome of a more Judge Says Grow Research Cannabis
"The science to support medical cannabis is than two-year petition process and comes
overwhelming, yet the government contin- on the heels of a recent University of In what may be a significant breakthrough
for U.S. researchers, who have been largely
thwarted by government restrictions, an
Advocacy Groups Join ASA in administrative law judge for the DEA has
concluded that more cannabis research is
"in the public interest" and that the gov-
Calling for Congressional Hearings ernment's supply of cannabis is inadequate.

A new study demonstrating the effective- "This study validates the experience people On February 12, Judge Mary Ellen Bittner
ness of cannabis in alleviating nerve pain living with HIV/AIDS and their doctors have issued a ruling in favor of University of
for HIV patients has patient advocacy reported for years- medical cannabis pro- Massachusetts-Amherst Professor Lyle E.
groups calling for Congressional hearings. vides much-needed relief from pain and Craker, Ph.D., who has led a six-year strug-
Americans for Safe Access joined with suffering." said Frank Oldham Jr., the exec- gle to gain a DEA license to grow research-
national HIV/AIDS and advocacy groups in utive director of the National Association of grade cannabis. Prof. Craker hopes to con-
appealing for new policies on cannabis. The People With AIDS. "That is why we are join- duct clinical studies that will determine the
study, conducted at the University of ing Americans for Safe Access to call on full extent of marijuana's medical value.
California, San Francisco medical school and Congress to address cannabis for its medici-
published February 12 in the peer-reviewed nal value." The DEA's response to the ruling is due March
journal Neurology, showed that HIV 26; Prof. Craker will have until May 4 to
patients suffering from neuropathic pain, a An estimated 3-4 million people in the U.S. answer. The DEA Deputy Administrator will
notoriously harsh and difficult to treat con- suffer from neuropathic pain, and as many then decide whether to accept or reject the
dition, reported twice as much relief from as 37% of people living with HIV/AIDS use ruling, likely within three to 15 months.
cannabis as compared to a control group. (continued, p2) (continued, p2)

Americans for Safe Access • 1322 Webster Street, Suite 402 • Oakland, CA 94612
510-251-1856 • [email protected] • www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org
 FALSE INFO CHALLENGED, continued) the public interest," said case co-counsel
treating pain in people living with HIV/AIDS. Alan Morrison, a preeminent legal scholar
AMERICANS FOR who founded Public Citizen's Litigation
SAFE ACCESS ASA first filed a petition to force HHS - the
FDA's parent agency - to correct statements
Group and currently serves as a senior lec-
turer at Stanford Law School.
www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org about the medical value of cannabis in
October 2004. Under the DQA, agencies "I had side effects from morphine patches,
1322 Webster Street, #402 must respond or file for an extension 60 oxycontin, and oxycodone before starting a
Oakland, California 94612 days from the date of the first petition fil- medical cannabis regime that has allowed
ing. The government response was a state- me to get off prescription drugs and live vir-
Phone: 510-251-1856
ment saying that it would not act on the tually pain-free," said Blackfoot, Idaho resi-
Fax: 510-251-2036 petition, a position it has maintained dent Victoria Lansford, a named patient in
[email protected] despite ASA's May 2005 appeal. Using the the lawsuit who suffers from fibromyalgia.
DQA's judicial review provisions, the "The government's refusal to face up to the
(RESEARCH UPDATE, continued) Oakland-based organization is now taking science is irresponsible and harms citizens like
its cause to the courts. me for whom this treatment is a lifeline."
ASA scientific director Barbara Roberts,
Ph.D., a former head of the Office of The DQA complaint ASA filed in court is at:
"Citizens have a right to expect the govern-
National Drug Control Policy, called publi- AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/DQ
ment to use the best available information
cation of the neuropathy study and A_Complaint.pdf. DQA Background info:
for policy decisions. This innovative case
Bittner's decision a double blow to those AmericansForSafeAccess.org/DQA.
turns the Data Quality Act into a tool for
who would prohibit such research.

"The government wants to have it both (CALL FOR HEARINGS, continued)

ways: they say the study doesn't have scien- the chronic pain of people living with
cannabis to treat neuropathy and other
tific rigor, so therefore there is no point in HIV/AIDS," said Dr. Barbara T. Roberts,
symptoms associated with the disease.
going forward. And, by the way, we are not Director of Medical and Scientific Affairs for
allowing the science to go forward either," Americans for Safe Access and a former
The UCSF study was a randomized, placebo-
she said. Roberts said Congress should hold Senior Policy Analyst at the White House
controlled clinical trial of 50 patients who
hearings" on the 1999 IOM report that sup- Office of National Drug Control Policy,
had an average of six years of neuropathic
ported research into the medicinal poten- which commissioned the IOM report.
pain. The pain reduction in the group
tial of marijuana.
receiving the medical cannabis was twice
that of those using a placebo. "In addition to people living with HIV/AIDS,
Download the judge's 87-page ruling at there are thousands of vets returning from
AmericansForsafeAccess.org/downloads/Cra Iraq who will spend decades coping with
"I have been living with HIV/AIDS for 21
ker_Ruling.pdf neurological pain," Dr. Roberts said. "By
years and owe my life to the benefits of
medical cannabis," said UCSF study partici- implementing the recommendations of the
Clinical Study Shows Cannabis Effective pant Diana Dodson. "It reduces the pain IOM report, the federal government would
for Patients with Neuropathic Pain and side-effects such as nausea and stom- be exploring more options for their long-
ach pains that are caused by the drugs I term treatment of neuropathic pain."
For the first time in nearly 20 years, a U.S. need to take in order to stay alive. But I
researcher has been able to publish the need the government to grant me safe The groups are calling on Congress to hold
findings of a clinical study of therapeutic access to my medicine." hearings on the IOM report to adopt its rec-
cannabis. The study, conducted by Dr. ommendations to allow patients and
Donald Abrams of the University of The study adds to the scientific evidence researchers to have access to medical
California San Francisco medical school, accumulated by researchers outside the U.S. cannabis.
found that HIV/AIDS patients suffering and a 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM)
from neuropathic pain got twice as much report, Marijuana and Medicine, Assessing "It's time for Washington to stop playing
relief from cannabis as compared to a con- the Science Base, which concluded that politics with patients' lives and advance this
trol group. there are patients and conditions for which important scientific discovery," said Steph
cannabis is the best treatment. Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for
The randomized placebo-controlled trial Safe Access. "The study is a wake-up call for
involved 50 patients who were randomly "This study demonstrates the potential Congress to hold hearings to investigate
assigned to smoke either cannabis (3.56% effectiveness of medical cannabis to treat therapeutic use and encourage research."
tetrahydrocannabinol) or identical placebo
cigarettes with the cannabinoids extracted
three times daily for 5 days. Smoked N AT I O N A L A C T I O N A L E R T
cannabis reduced daily pain by 34% (medi-
an reduction; IQR = -71, -16). Greater than Call on Congress to Hold Hearings on Medical Cannabis
30% reduction in pain was reported by In light of long overdue research published recently in Neurology, ASA is asking
52% in the cannabis group and the first Congress to support our call for congressional oversight hearings to investigate why
cannabis cigarette reduced chronic pain by federal agencies resist full implementation of the recommendations provided by the
a median of 72% vs. 15% with placebo. Institute of Medicine in their 1999 report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the
Science Base. E-mail your Senators and Representative and urge support for congres-
Researchers concluded that smoked sional hearings to investigate why federal agencies discourage medical cannabis
cannabis was well tolerated and effectively research. Visit ASA's congressional action site to send your letter:
relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-
associated sensory neuropathy. The abstract www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org/CongressionalHearings or call the Congressional
and full article can be seen at http://neurol- Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to reach your representative.
ogy.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/7/515.