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Today's
Stories
July
17, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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Weekend
Edition
July 17 / 18, 2004
The
Politics of Marijuana
Cannabinoid
Therapeutics
By
FRED GARDNER
The directors of the University of California's
Center for Medical Cannabis Research--Igor Grant, MD, and Drew
Mattison, PhD--organized a "workshop" in Paestum, Italy
last month that seemed to violate their basic mandate.
The event, entitled "Future
Directions in Cannabinoid Therapeutics II: From the Bench to
the Clinic," was held on Sunday, June 27, following the
International Cannabinoid Research Society's annual meeting.
Participants included many prestigious scientists -Raphael Mechoulam,
Roger Pertwee, Raj Razdan, Alexandros Makriyannis, Daniele Piomelli,
Cecilia Hillard, Vincenzo di Marzo, Ester Fride, Natsuo Ueda,
Jun Fu, George Kunos, Geoffrey Guy, and others. The guests had
no idea, presumably, that the session was unauthorized by the
people of California.
The CMCR conference was not
publicized in advance and as of this writing is not reported
on their website. I first heard about it as the ICRS meeting
got underway from Sumner Burstein, a UMass medical school researcher
who has developed a synthetic drug, ajulemic acid (named after
his granddaughters) that activates the cannabinoid receptors.
Burstein said that a Massachusetts drug company, Indevus, was
testing AJA as a treatment for pain, and that their promising
early results would be reported at "the meeting on Sunday."
He said he hoped I could attend. (The ICRS program ran through
Saturday.)
Next evening two California
doctors, Jeff Hergenrather of Sebastopol and R. Stephen Ellis
of San Francisco, were seated at dinner with Drew Mattison, who
revealed that the CMCR was holding a meeting on Sunday for companies
developing drugs they hoped to test and market in the U.S. Mattison
said it was "by invitation only," and he did not extend
an invite to the California docs (who, being gentlemen, did not
protest).
The following afternoon I encountered Mattison outside the lecture
hall and told him that Burstein had invited me to the CMCR session.
He said, in obvious displeasure, that "since there had been
so many complaints," he'd been forced to "open it up"
on a first-come, first-served basis to 20 more participants.
I could get in if I showed up early enough.
I asked Mattison if the CMCR
-which has headquarters at UC San Diego and an office at UC San
Francisco- might find a way to provide analytical-lab services
so that California patients, doctors and growers could identify
the composition of the plants they were using and begin to duplicate,
however crudely, the G.W. approach to research. He gave me a
horrified look and, instead of responding, said "Gerard
might be starting his talk" and scurried into the hall where
Gerard Le Fur of Sanofi was about to describe the effectiveness
of a cannabinoid-antagonist drug in treating obesity.
The CMCR Sunday conference
was held in a room at the Ariston Hotel, same as the ICRS meeting.
About 40 distinguished scientists sat around tables with nameplates,
microphones, water, gift notepads, etc. (There was a noticeably
higher percentage of men than at the ICRS meeting.) Breakfast
and lunch were provided. The abstract book acknowledged grants
from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Health Canada,
Solvay (makers of Marinol), Lilly, Merck, Esteve, Valeant, Indevus,
Kadmus, and G.W. Pharmaceuticals. At least five people from UC
San Diego were involved -Mattison and Grant, staffer Heather
Bentley, a grad student and a distraught technician who kept
scurrying along the floor trying to get the mikes to work and/or
stop screeching.
The program was organized into
four sections: "Cannabinoid Agonists," "Cannabinoid
Antagonists," "New Trends in Cannabinoid Therapeutics,"
and "Cannabinoid Drug Development." Except for the
promotion of antagonist drugs -which work by blocking the body's
cannabinoid receptors and pose dangers about which the designers
remain in deep denial- most of the research being described had
positive therapeutic implications. The talks involved very arcane
chemistry, with the exception of Geoffrey Guy's report that tolerance
did not build up in more than 1,000 patients who had taken Sativex
for more than a year (for various conditions).
Our concern is not that the
CMCR honchos spent taxpayers' money on making themselves "players"
in the cannabisiness world (the legislation creating the CMCR
allows them to spend five percent of their time raising money
from outside sources), but that the program itself violated their
reason for being, which was and is to study "marijuana,"
not ajulemic acid, or Marinol, or "cannbinoid therapeutics."
The CMCR was created by "The Marijuana Research Act of 1999"
-SB-487- which was introduced by State Sen. John Vasconcellos
explicitly in response to the passage of Prop 215. SB-487 authorized
the UC regents to create a "Marijuana Research Program...
(to) develop and conduct studies intended to ascertain the general
medical safety and efficacy of marijuana and, if found valuable
(sic), shall develop medical guidelines for the appropriate administration
and use of marijuana."
Note that the act refers to
"marijuana" as it was and is being used by Californians
under Prop 215 -in other words, the plant. The crude plant that
grows in the crude soil and that we voted to legalize for medical
use. SB-487 made no reference to synthetic formulations, let
alone antagonist drugs. It authorized UC to sponsor studies involving
"marijuana." For example: "Proposals shall contain
procedures for outreach to patients with various medical conditions
who may be suitable participants in research on marijuana..."
And "Proposals shall contain protocols suitable for research
on marijuana..." And "Studies conducted pursuant to
this section shall include the greatest amount of new scientific
research possible on the medical uses of, and medical hazards
associated with, marijuana..." And "The marijuana studies
shall employ state-of-the-art research methodologies." And
so forth.
How did it come to pass that
research into the safety and efficacy of marijuana got transmuted
into studies involving synthetics? A key step was the selection
of UC San Diego -where the influence of the medical marijuana
movement was almost nil- to be the headquarters and Mattison
and Grant -a major recipient of NIDA funding throughout his career-
to be the directors.
Whereas SB-847 had called for
"Marijuana Research" the UC center changed its name
to Cannabis (Latin is so much classier than Mexican). The launch
was accompanied by a self-congratulatory mission statement that
eradicated marijuana, introduced the ambiguous term "cannabis
products," and added a gratuitous goal that ignores the
people of California while blowing a kiss to fellow bureaucrats:
"The Center for Medicinal
Cannabis Research will conduct high quality scientific studies
intended to ascertain the general medical safety and efficacy
of cannabis and cannabis products and examine alternative forms
of cannabis administration. The center will be seen as a model
resource for health policy planning by virtue of its close collaboration
with federal, state, and academic entities."
Had the CMCR been based at
UC San Francisco its operation might have been monitored by doctors
and cannabis-using patients who want and need studies relevant
to their own situation. Who is better positioned than the CMCR
to collect data on the conditions that Californians have been
treating with cannabis. And to collect and analyze the results?
Who is better positioned to analyze and provide data on the strains
being used in the here and now? A director whose ambitions were
on the clinical rather than the research side of medicine would
have promoted such studies.
Instead we have Igor Grant
and Drew Mattison "bringing together the major stakeholders
in the development of cannabinoid therapeutics," as their
abstract book puts it, "to survey the laboratory compounds
that are most promising for testing in human trials, confront
potential stumbling blocks to testing and development of these
compounds, and identify opportunities for progressing (sic, sic,
sic) new compounds to clinical readiness."
The CMCR leaders showed disrespect
for the people they're supposed to be serving when they didn't
invite Hergenrather and Ellis -who between them have monitored
cannabis use by more than 5,000 patients!- to their confab.
A member of the CMCR scientific
advisory board (which has not met in two years) told your correspondent
that he had not been apprised of the "workshop" in
Paestum. He sought to defend the CMCR by saying that SB-847 requires
that their studies be conducted with marijuana provided by NIDA.
But the wording of the law suggests that studies could be conducted
with California-grown herb! "The program shall ensure that
all marijuana used in the studies is of the appropriate medical
quality and shall be obtained from the National Institute on
Drug Abuse or any other federal agency designated to supply marijuana
for authorized research. ITAL If these federal agencies fail
to provide a supply of adequate quality END ITAL and quantity
within six months of the effective date of this section, the
Attorney General shall provide an adequate supply pursuant to
Section 11478."
The federal agencies have indeed
failed to provide marijuana of adequate quality -which is why
several CMCR studies couldn't entice enough test subjects and
have been "on hold" for years. (Most egregious example:
a San Mateo study designed for 58 subjects that recruited just
one!) Why don't the scientists involved ask the AG to start supplying
medicine comparable to what Californians are growing in their
own gardens? Why don't they just get real? While they're at it
they can discard any "placebo" protocols that are keeping
prospective patients out of their studies. What seriously ill
person would risk getting a placebo when they desperately need
effective medicine?
We have to remind ourselves
that the CMCR was created in response to Prop 215, which was
a rejection of a prohibition upheld not just by the government
but by the biomedical establishment. Research inspired by Prop
215 should be realistic, practical, and designed to answer questions
raised by Californians who use cannabis as medicine in the now.
Fred Gardner writes the weekly Politics of Marijuana
column for CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser.
Weekend
Edition Features for July 10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
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