Chronic Cannabis Use in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program: An Examination of Benefits and Adverse Effects of Legal Clinical Cannabis
Ethan Russo et al. "Chronic Cannabis Use in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program: An Examination of Benefits and Adverse Effects of Legal Clinical Cannabis," Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 2, issue 1 (2002): 3-52.
The U.S. government has supplied medical marijuana to a small number of patients since 1978, but has never studied its own patients. This privately funded study of four surviving patients in the program is the only published study of its participants. The researchers report "clinical effectiveness in these patients in treating glaucoma, chronic musculoskeletal pain, spasm and nausea, and spasticity of multiple sclerosis," with relatively minor side effects -- despite the fact that the government-supplied marijuana is a "crude, low-grade product."
Full text available for free at http://www.maps.org/mmj/russo2002.pdf.
