POT USERS SOUGHT FOR STUDY

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

Montreal's McGill University is heading a year-long, Canada-wide 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 cancer patients are not being sought.

Ware is already involved in studies measuring marijuana's therapeutic value
in pain control. But in the COMPASS study -- cannabis for the management of
pain: assessment of safety study -- he's seeking 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.

Free weed will be supplied by Health Canada. The strain supplied is to
contain 12 per cent of the active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

For study participants, marijuana possession will be legal. They'll be able
get their doses at local pharmacies -- starting with once a week for the
first month, then once a month for the rest of the year. It's to be used at
home as usual -- smoked, brewed as tea or cooked in recipes.