WASHINGTON - Marijuana should be scientifically tested on patients to determine if smoking the weed can help sick people combat nausea and other serious conditions, a panel of experts concluded in a report released today.

The eight-member committee said that scientific study of marijuana's medical value should be separated "from the societal debate over the potential harmful effects of nonmedical marijuana use."

The committee called on the National Institutes of Health to facilitate grants studying such marijuana use.

"All decisions on the ultimate usefulness of a medical intervention are based on a benefit/risk calculation," the report said. "Marijuana should be no exception."

The report said marijuana should be studied for its effect on improving appetite among patients with severe weight loss; controlling nausea and vomiting for cancer patients; controlling

some neurological disorders, such as epilepsy; for pain relief; and to treat glaucoma, a serious and progressive eye disorder.

NIH director Dr. Harold Varmus said grant applications for studies of the medical efficacy of marijuana will undergo "our normal scientific review" and will be funded if they meet accepted

standards and are considered of more value than competing grant applications.

The committee of private doctors and nurses was selected and sponsored by the NIH.

(Copyright 1997 SeattleTimes- 8/8/97)

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