The argument for the reform of marijuana laws gained some forward momentum recently when a research team at University of California, San Diego released findings stating “reasonable evidence” that cannabis – better known as marijuana – is a promising treatment for pain in some medical conditions.

Dr. Igor Grant.

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But Dr. Igor Grant, MD, who directs the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UCSD, is quick to separate the CMCR’s findings from the push to legalize pot.

“It’s not my call to make,” he says, “but I hope that whatever social policy is developed will be informed by the medical evidence, which provides some decent evidence that benefit comes from medical marijuana.”

The CMCR report represents the first significant research findings in the U.S. on the subject in two decades. Long known as a choice of pain relief and an appetite stimulant for HIV/AIDS patients, and for its use in curbing nausea following chemotherapy, until now there has been little in the way of actual scientific evidence to demonstrate marijuana is any better than any other drug currently available.

Why? For years, research has been hindered by the federal government. The Nixon administration made marijuana a Schedule 1 controlled substance along with heroin and PCP. Dr. Grant, executive vice-chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the UCSD School of Medicine, describes the getting of legal marijuana for clinical study as a “cumbersome process that involves many levels of federal government.”

Illegal at the federal level, 14 states thus far have passed measures to legalize medical marijuana, California first among them in 1996 with the passage of SB 215. California legislature passed the Medical Marijuana Research Act in 1999 and, in 2000, the CMCR was formed to answer, once and for all, whether marijuana has any therapeutic value.

Medical marijuana has also been at the forefront of local politics in recent months. Following the Obama White House announcement last spring that the feds would no longer enforce anti-marijuana laws, dispensaries and storefronts opened in significant numbers throughout the county. Some were legitimate distributors of medical marijuana, but many were not. Police and SWAT teams conducted raids in September of last year in which 23 people were arrested and 14 storefronts were shut down.

By November of 2009, the San Diego City Council had created a Medical Marijuana Task Force to help gather facts and create policy for an ordinance to regulate storefront dispensaries.

Alex Kreit chairs the Task Force. He says the UCSD report was discussed at the Task Force meeting February 19 and thinks it is significant but will bear little influence on an issue that was already decided by the voters.

“I think we see that our job is to think about how we can regulate collectives and cooperatives in a way that is consistent with state law," says Kreit. "I don’t think we’ll be looking too closely at this report in our work.”

Craig Beresch, president of the Southern California chapter of NORML, a marijuana advocacy organization, says he has had a chance to review the CMCR report as well.

“We have a study that shows a positive result from the use of medical marijuana,” he says. “That’s something that the government is going to have to take seriously at this point.”