By: LISA M.KRIEGER
San Francisco Examiner

MEDICINE: The twoyear UCSF experiment will try to determine what
effects,if any,marijuana has on HIVinfected subjects.

SAN FRANCISCOThe federal government has given the goahead to a
comprehensive study of the safety and effectiveness of pot smoking by
HIVinfected patients.

The research project, run by Dr. Donald Abrams and his team of scientists
at the University of California, San Francisco, will pay volunteers $1,000
to be hospitalized for 25 days and either smoke pot, take a tablet form of
the drug or take a placebo.

They're seeking an unusual group of recruits: former or current pot smokers
who aren't afraid to inhale, don't mind hospital food, will happily share
bedrooms and are content with confinement.

They also have to be on an antiviral regimen of combination AIDS drugs,
including the potent new protease inhibitor Crixivan (indinivir).

"This is a good study," said Abrams of the $1 million, twoyear project,
titled "Short Term Effects of Cannabanoids in HIV Patients."

"It is wellfocused, with a sophisticated statistical analysis," he said.

Earlier proposals by Abrams and his team were rejected by three federal
government agencies: the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Drug
Enforcement Administration and, most recently, the National Institutes of
Health.

Officials also were unwilling to give him governmentgrown marijuana.

By passing Proposition 215 in November, California voters decided that
seriously ill people can legally treat their suffering by smoking
marijuana. However, there was no scientific evidence to support medicinal
marijuana smoking. All favorable reports have been anecdotal.

The goal is to study the interactions of the drugs. Researchers also will
monitor the influence of pot on HIV levels, immunesystem health and hormones.

Additionally, the scientists will count calories, pounds and the number of
trips to the refrigerator.

Volunteers will be divided into three groups: those ingesting real pot, a
synthetic THC drug called Marinol, or a placebo. They'll take the agent
three times a day, at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In a waiver of UCSF's tough antismoking policy, the pot smokers will be
offered special ventilated rooms. Their pot will come from the government
farm in Mississippi, with midrange potency of 3.9 percent THC.

"Prior marijuana smoking experience is required, so they know what to
expect and don't freak out," said Abrams. "We don't want to have to sit
there, holding their hands."