STUDY ASKS: CAN POT FOR PAIN BE RISKY?

MONTREAL - Seeking seriously motivated pot users -- in a lot of pain.

Montreal's McGill University is heading a year-long, Canadawide study on
the safety of cannabis used for medical purposes.

Recreational potheads need not apply.

Seven pain clinics across the country are now enrolling patients for this
study, considered a first of its kind, lead investigator Mark Ware of the
McGill University Health Centre, said Wednesday.

"We obviously can't take in every cannabis user that's got a little bit of
back pain. It has to be people who are critically in a lot of pain and
whose other therapies are failing them," Ware said. "Physicians know who
these people are."

The typical recruit would have pain from spinal cord injuries, multiple
sclerosis, arthritis, nerve injury and other kinds of treatment-resistant
pain, but not cancer patients.

Ware is already involved in studies measuring marijuana's therapeutic value
in pain control.

The COMPASS study -- "cannabis for the management of pain: assessment of
safety study" -- seeks to document adverse side effects. How does pot use
affect the heart, kidney, liver and lungs as well as cognitive functions
including memory and concentration?

The study expects to answer these questions by following 1,400 patients
with chronic pain, including 350 who already use pot as part of their therapy.

For study participants, marijuana possession will be legal, and the pot is
free.

Since Health Canada amended the cannabis law in 2001, at least 753 people
have obtained permits to possess marijuana for medical purposes.