"The latest rules are a baby step but a necessary first step," says TIME medical columnist Christine Gorman. "If you want to study the medical benefits of marijuana, you cant just buy it off the street. You cant prove anything about the drug without some standardization, which means utilizing pure research-grade samples." There is evidence, for example, that marijuana can help fight glaucoma and help stem the nausea associated with chemotherapy. The new HHS policy will loosen the rules enough to make top-grade marijuana available without hassles to study these and other possible benefits -- and to help ensure that those studies stay within the confines of the nation's top research labs.
Feds Bend on Marijuana, But No Inhaling Yet
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The federal government gave proponents of the medical use of marijuana a small boost on Friday when the Department of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the White Houses hard-nosed Office of National Drug Policy, issued new guidelines that make it easier for researchers to obtain marijuana. The department said it will now provide legitimate scientists with top-grade marijuana grown on government land on a "cost-reimbursement basis." The new government rules are far less than some researchers might wish -- no funding accompanies the new policy, evidently -- and they are certainly much less than what Californians voted for in a 1996 referendum when they indicated they wanted to allow patients to use marijuana, if it was prescribed by a doctor.