COMING TO A DRUGSTORE NEAR YOU?

Drug Companies Work Feverishly On A Spray Version Of Pot For MS
Sufferers

Sherri Jones is a woman of faith; a fresh-faced, fortysomething
stay-at-home mom who grows pot in her basement and every night before
bed takes a long, slow hit from her bong.

She lives in fear that her children will be taunted because their mom
smokes weed, that her guests will catch a whiff of the buds flowering
in the basement or that hooligans will break in and steal her medicine.

Mostly, though, she fears the judgement of those who don't understand
that cannabis is the only drug that helps her control the pain and
spastic limbs brought on by multiple sclerosis, a disease she has been
living with for seven years.

For those reasons the local woman doesn't want her real name used in
this article, so Sherri Jones is a pseudonym.

"I am not a strung-out druggie," Jones says defiantly. "I am a normal
stay-at-home mom and I am totally against drugs.

"If I didn't have MS, or it didn't help MS, then I wouldn't smoke it.
Period."

Her fears could soon be a thing of the past: pharmaceutical companies'
multimillion-dollar push to bring a new crop of marijuana-based drugs
to market is giving hope to those who want the medical benefits of
marijuana without the stigma.

If GW Pharmaceuticals of England gets approval from Health Canada --
perhaps as soon as this summer -- Jones could get a doctor's
prescription for Sativex, a pot-based drug she can spray under her
tongue.

If approved, Sativex will only be prescribed to treat the pain and
spasticity that comes with MS, but developers hope it will eventually
be used to treat symptoms of cancer, arthritis and even irritable
bowel syndrome. No buds, no bong, no smoke and no secrecy.

Jones feels like a criminal even though she is one of the more than
700 Canadians who has the government's permission to use the drug. She
keeps her special status secret from everyone -- even her own mother.

"People will judge," she says. "This is such a hush-hush thing. You
don't want anyone to know."

Not all Canadians who use pot for medical purposes feel the way Jones
does. At least 8,000 belong to compassion clubs across the country and
use marijuana that is illegally grown and distributed. They argue the
drug is safe, effective and should not be illegal. They say the
Canadian government's Medical Marihuana Access Regulations are
bumbling and byzantine and the quality of the government's marijuana
is intolerably poor. Compassion clubs fill the void with organic,
high-potency pot.

But companies like GW Pharmaceuticals and its Toronto-based competitor
Cannasat are betting millions of dollars that many of those users
would choose a spray, pill or patch from their neighbourhood
pharmacist over a brownie, joint or tincture from their local
compassion club.

Their doctors almost certainly will. The Canadian Medical Association
has strongly opposed the government's medical marijuana regulations,
saying science doesn't know enough about the drug to prescribe it
safely. The Canadian Medical Protective Association, which insures
doctors, warns physicians not to sign patients' marijuana exemption
forms.

Dr. Michael Yeung is a doctor at the Calgary Multiple Sclerosis Clinic
which provides services to 5,000 MS patients in Alberta, a province
with one of the highest rates of MS in the world. Neither he nor any
other doctor there will prescribe pot. Smoking is dangerous, they say,
and too little is known about the drug.

"We don't know the long-term side effects, we can't judge dosage ...
We don't even know what the active ingredient is," he says.

And, Yeung says, it is difficult to prescribe. "What am I supposed
say, take one toke?"

GW Pharmaceuticals says it has that problem solved.

"By standardizing delivery by means of a spray, we are ensuring that
it is safe and that it is consistent," GW spokesman Mark Rogerson says.

"The dose you take tomorrow ... will be exactly the same as the dose
you took today, you will know where it comes from. With Sativex you
don't need to get high to manage your symptoms."

Getting high is one of the key reasons MS sufferers stop using pot,
according to a 2003 study published in the Canadian Journal of
Neurological Studies.

"The side effect of being high was unacceptable," one respondent told
researchers. The patient stopped using the drug even though it helped
with walking and stiffness. Another said: "I have to take care of
myself and being stoned and forgetting stuff can't be part of my life."

Most MS patients will never try marijuana. The study's authors say
even though nearly all know marijuana could relieve the extreme
fatigue, chronic pain and muscle spasticity that comes with MS, they
won't try it because it is illegal.

Sativex will be legal, and the big pharmaceutical companies say that
means more patients will use it and get the medical benefits of
marijuana. What could be wrong with that?

Some observers say it could mean the end of patient choice; the
organic, high-potency bud offered by compassion clubs may be forced
underground by the sanctioned pharmaceutical spray.

"Most of these clubs exist simply because the police let them exist,"
Osgoode Hall Law School professor Alan Young says. A lawyer who has
played a seminal role in the Canadian pro-pot movement, Young recently
joined Cannasat in its quest to develop a marijuana-based
pharmaceutical.

"Law enforcement knows it is a public relations nightmare to target
what might be a medical operation, so they leave (the compassion clubs) be.

"But in 10 years, if there is a vibrant market in cannabinoid
products, Health Canada and the Department of Justice may take the
view that these clubs don't serve a constructive purpose anymore. ...
Then maybe you will see a change in law enforcement policy."

Pro-pot activists have for decades put their liberty on the line to
get cannabis into the hands of the people who need it, says Reille
Capler of the B.C. Compassion Club Society. If pharmaceuticals can
help achieve that aim, they will support it.

"There is a niche for them to fill because of the stigma and the legal
status," Capler says. "But we're on an uneven playing field."

She and her colleagues worry about the drug companies' drive for
profit, the ultimate accountability to shareholders -- not to patients
- -- and an apparent mission to secure a monopoly on pot-based medicines.

"(Pharmaceuticals) can't replace the products and services of a
compassion club, and can't replace the benefits of the variety of
strains we offer," Capler says. Some patients prefer smoking organic
weed and pharmaceuticals will be a one-size-fits-all dose that may not
work for all patients.

Then there is the cost: compassion clubs offer pot to patients for
roughly $8 per gram, and most patients use between one and two grams
per day. The cost is not covered by health care plans and Capler says
the club gives the drug free to needy patients.

The drug companies want to make money.

"There are a lot of people who will have a long discussion about what
a medicine is," GW Pharmaceuticals' founder Dr. Geoffrey Guy told The
Walrus magazine last year. "But I am a pharmaceutical physician, and
my definition of a pharmaceutical is a 'worthwhile medicine that makes
money.'"

Nobody can say how lucrative the market for marijuana-based drugs
might be, but some believe pot will be a multi-purpose drug that
treats millions of people for everything from cancer to aids to arthritis.

Millions of people who, like Sherri Jones, just want to live a
healthy, pain-free life without feeling like a criminal or fearing the
judgement of her peers.

"People put this stigma on us," she says. "They say these pot growers
are gangsters, Mafia, potheads and drug lords. That's what they see.

"If that spray works, I'm sure as heck getting rid of this stuff."