CANADA APPROVES POT-LIKE PAINKILLER

Sativex, Which Dulls Neuropathic Pain Without Giving Off a High, Could
Hit Stores by Summer.

Canada has become the first country in the world to approve the sale
of a cannabis-based prescription painkiller. Cannabis sativa L. has
won approval from Health Canada regulators for treatment of a severe
form of pain common among sufferers of multiple sclerosis, but it may
also find favor with those with nerve pain related to conditions
ranging from shingles to cancer.

The drug, marketed in Canada by Bayer HealthCare under the brand name
Sativex, is sprayed under the tongue or inside the cheek.

While it contains the active ingredients that give pot smokers their
buzz, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol
(CBD), the drug does not intoxicate users. "These people are not
feeling intoxicated by the drug, partly because the type of
cannabinoids that have been isolated and purified work more
specifically at the targeted pain receptors," said Dr. Virginia
Devonshire, a neurologist at the University of British Columbia.

Patients who will be prescribed the drug will also be suffering from
neuropathic pain, which is excruciating and can be provoked by
movement, touch or temperature.

"It's like being plugged into an electric socket all the time," said
Steve Walsh of Milton, Ontario, who has endured neuropathic pain in
his hand for five years since being diagnosed with MS.

The move was applauded by those with the disease and proponents of
medical uses for marijuana.

"This confirms that virtually everything the U.S. government has told
us about marijuana is wrong," said Rob Kampia, executive director of
the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. The organization is
fighting to have marijuana legalized for medical use. "This product
offers patients and doctors a new option and we hope Americans will
have access to it soon."

In the United States, the federal government has classified marijuana
as a drug that is as dangerous as heroin, although 10 states have
passed laws that allow its use under medical supervision.

Sativex should be on the market in Canada before summer. The price of
the drug has not yet been established.

While a number of drugs use synthesized forms of cannabis, this is the
first to use marijuana extracts. The British drug company that
developed Sativex, GW Pharmaceuticals, has been harvesting 40,000 pot
plants in a secret location to produce the drug.