1/4 of AIDS patients use medical marijuana

Via NORML:

San Mateo, CA: Approximately one out of four patients suffering from
HIV has smoked marijuana within the past month to relieve symptoms of the
disease, according to clinical findings published in this month’s issue of
the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

Twenty-three percent of the 252 participants in the study responded
that they had smoked medicinal marijuana within the previous month.
“Reported benefits included relief from anxiety and/or depression (57%),
improved appetite (53%), increased pleasure (33%), and relief of pain
(28%),” authors stated.

A similar survey conducted in Canada and presented last November at
the Ontario HIV Treatment Network research conference concluded that 29
percent of HIV-positive Ontarians used marijuana therapeutically.

Presently, clinical trials examining the therapeutic potential of
cannabinoids in HIV patient populations are ongoing at the University of
California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research.

According to a recently published study in the journal Annals of
Internal Medicine, use of inhaled marijuana demonstrates “no major,
short-term harmful effects and possibly some beneficial effects … in
HIV-infected patients taking protease inhibitors.”

Yep, this is the stuff that our drug czar calls a “fraud.”