Canadian HIV study uses U.S.-grown marijuana

A study by researchers in Toronto on the effectiveness of marijuana use in stimulating hunger and treating AIDS-related wasting in HIV-positive patients is using marijuana grown in the United States, United Press International reports. The marijuana is being grown at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and is being provided to the Canadian researchers through the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md. Researchers are testing the drug before enrolling the first of 32 HIV-positive patients in the clinical trial, which is expected to begin later this year and to produce preliminary results by fall 2003. The study is the first in the world to examine the effects of marijuana use specifically on patients infected with the AIDS virus.