POT EASES NEUROPATHIC PAIN, RESEARCHERS REPORT

NEW YORK -- Giving carefully calibrated doses of marijuana to people
with neuropathic pain, which can be difficult-to-treat and extremely
painful, can ease their pain without clouding their minds, California
researchers report.

Neuropathic pain can result from spinal cord injury, diabetes-related
nerve damage, multiple sclerosis, or other types of nerve injury, and
is typically treated with a wide range of drugs including
antidepressants, anticonvulsants, opioids, and anti-inflammatories,
the study's lead author, Dr. Barth Wilsey of the University of
California, Davis Medical Center, said in an interview.

Wilsey became interested in testing marijuana for treating neuropathic
pain, he said in an interview, after many of his patients told him
they were already smoking pot to cope.

To examine the pain-fighting effects of pot scientifically, he and his
colleagues had 38 people with neuropathic pain smoke high-dose joints
containing seven per cent delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (9-THC), a
lower dose version containing 3.5 per cent 9-THC, or a placebo
cigarette from which all 9-THC had been extracted.

Each study participant went through a trial of each of the three
cigarettes, using a standardized system for puff timing and inhalation
length developed at the University of California Center for Medicinal
Cannabis Research.

All study participants had abstained from smoking pot for at least 30
days beforehand, and smoking sessions were separated by at least three
days to allow the drug to leave their systems.