British Association Science Festival In Glasgow

HIGH HOPES FOR CANNABIS TO RELIEVE PAIN

Cannabis extract is proving remarkably effective at relieving severe pain
in patients with multiple sclerosis and spinal injury, the British
Association science festival in Glasgow heard yesterday.

William Nortcutt, a pain specialist at James Paget Hospital, Great
Yarmouth, gave the first results of a clinical trial that he is conducting
in collaboration with GW Pharmaceuticals, the company authorised by the
government to grow cannabis for medical purposes.

Dr Nortcutt has studied 23 people with intractable pain for more than a
year, monitoring the responses of each patient to a succession of different
cannabis extracts and placebos. The materials were administered through a
spray under the tongue - a method that gives a much faster and more
reproducible effect than eating cannabis and is safer than smoking it. "The
joint is not analysable or suitable for medical practice," Dr Nortcutt said.

Only one of the 23 patients failed to benefit from the cannabis spray and
two others dropped out because of side effects. The remaining 18
experienced pain relief that varied from moderate ("at least I can sleep at
night") to dramatic ("it has transformed my life"). Patients on morphine to
control severe pain were able to cut their doses dramatically.

GW Pharmaceuticals supplies Dr Nortcutt with extracts of plants cultured to
contain different cannabinoid chemicals, from which the sprays are made.
Most patients favour a mixture with less psychoactive impact.

"Of course you can get stoned on this treatment if you want, and one or two
of our patients did push it to a high, to see what the effects would be,
but that is not what they want," Dr Nortcutt said. "They are desperate for
pain relief."

Elizabeth Williamson, senior lecturer at the School of Pharmacy in London,
said most patients preferred extracts of the whole cannabis plant, which
contains 70 different cannabinoids, rather than purified
tetrahydrocannabinol, the component responsible for producing the "high".

Other clinical studies of cannabis are taking place in London, Oxford,
Plymouth and the Channel Islands.