Group is fuming over government-grown pot

[bongme]

hi

Norstrom.com

Bad weed no help in HIV study, it says

May 15, 2002

BY KAREN DE SA

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The pot is unsmokeable, they say, full of sticks, stems and seeds. The leaves have gone stale after at least a year of storage, freezing and then thawing.

Marijuana supplied to researchers from the government farm in Mississippi isn't quality product, according to some observers. HIV patient Phillip Alden said he knows from experience -- he's smoked it. And the result? An upper respiratory infection and an early departure from a landmark study, the first publicly funded analysis of HIV patients smoking cannabis at home.

In 10 months, fewer than 10 subjects have been accepted into San Mateo County's marijuana study, which took years to get funded and approved. The county's medical chief of staff, Dr. Dennis Israelski, had planned for 60.

Some say it must be the pot.

"I couldn't smoke the stuff anymore," said Alden, a freelance writer who relies on marijuana to ease HIV-related wasting disease. "I was disgusted with the federal government."

Dale Gieringer, California coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, agrees. "It's unconscionable that they would be giving this marijuana to patients," he said. "It's stale, low-potency ditch weed."

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, which grows the marijuana that is pre-rolled, frozen and sent out to officially sanctioned researchers nationwide, denies its research product is substandard.

"The marijuana we provide does not contain sticks and seeds. The problem is re-humidifying -- it makes it kind of harsh," said Steve Gust, special assistant to the institute's director. "Certain procedures are needed to make it smoke right."

Gust said researchers aren't complaining about quality. He said groups like NORML are looking for something to blame if the results of the studies show marijuana has little medicinal value. "Then they can say the marijuana isn't of sufficient quality," Gust said.

The cannabis trials began in July, but few patients have met the strict enrollment standards.

Bongme

[Mr Bucket]

Another report on this....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52825,00.html

Medicial-Marijuana Advocates Dismiss Government Pot as 'Ditch Weed'

SAN JOSE, Calif.  — In the world of high-grade marijuana, sticks, seeds and stems are not welcome ingredients.

Medical marijuana researchers said they found such cannabis chaff among pot from a government farm, and say their patients deserve kinder buds.

The government-grown marijuana is being provided to San Mateo County for the first publicly funded analysis of HIV patients smoking the drug at home.

But some of the patients and medical marijuana advocacy groups say the Mississippi-grown weed is weak.

"It's unconscionable that they would be giving this marijuana to patients," said Dale Gieringer, state coordinator for NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "It's stale, low-potency ditch weed."

Fewer than 10 people are taking part in the study originally planned for 60 participants. One man gave up smoking the joints altogether after he became fed up with the low quality.

The government defended its marijuana, saying it "does not contain sticks and seeds."

"The problem is re-humidifying. It makes it kind of harsh," said Steve Gust, special assistant to the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In Southern California, they're having just the opposite problem.

Two patients enrolled in a medical marijuana trial program in La Jolla have complained that the NIDA-provided pot is too potent.

"They've reported getting high shortly after the first few puffs," said Dr. Andrew Mattison, the center's co-director. "These are people with a chronic, debilitating illness who do not want to get high. They want to get pain relief."