REVIEW MAY CLEAR WAY FOR CANNABIS TREATMENT

DOCTORS could be allowed to prescribe cannabis for multiple sclerosis and
other painful medical conditions after a review of government drugs policy.

Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, and Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, are
thought to have agreed that the illegal drug could be used for medicinal
purposes, although they are still not prepared to decriminalise it for
recreational use.

Mo Mowlam, the Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for drugs
policy, had hoped to persuade Mr Blair to set up a Royal Commission to
review the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.

Downing Street has rejected this idea over fears that a commission may
recommend the decriminalisation of cannabis but is considering allowing its
medicinal use.

A spokesman for No10 insisted yesterday that there were no immediate plans
to legalise any controlled drugs and said the Prime Minister was waiting
for the results of a number of trials into the medical use of cannabis.
However, he did not rule out a relaxation of the government's hardline
policy to allow cannabis to be used under medical supervision.

Two trials into the medical use of cannabis were announced last year. A
UKP1 million Medical Research Council study is looking at its effects on
660 patients with multiple sclerosis. A second trial by GW Pharmaceuticals,
into its effects on 2,000 patients with MS, spinal cord injuries and
chronic pain, is due to start later this year.

Doctors have already urged the government to allow cannabis to be used for
medical purposes - the British Medical Association's board of science
declared in 1997 that there was evidence that the drug could help muscle
spasm in patients with MS. There was also limited evidence of benefits for
patients with epilepsy, glaucoma, asthma, high blood pressure and weight
loss caused by AIDS.

However, doctors have warned that raw cannabis can be harmful - tar levels
are three times higher than in cigarettes and new research has suggested
that smoking four cannabis joints causes as much lung damage as 20 cigarettes.

A test of the government's attitude towards cannabis will come on Tuesday
with the publication of a two-year Police Foundation study into the 1971
Misuse of Drugs Act. The inquiry is expected to recommend that people
should no longer be jailed for possessing cannabis for their own use.

Doctors found guilty of serious professional misconduct will be struck off
the medical register for life under new government proposals.

The General Medical Council will also be given new powers to suspend
doctors as soon as a complaint is made or they are arrested for a serious
crime. Under the proposed changes, doctors struck off the medical register
will be erased for life "save in the most exceptional circumstances".

Doctors will not be able to apply for re-admission for at least five years,
instead of the present 18-month period, and the GMC will be obliged to tell
employers if one of their doctors is under investigation.

The health minister, John Hutton, is proposing the tough new changes to the
Medical Act in the wake of the Harold Shipman case. Shipman, a former
Greater Manchester GP, was convicted last month of murdering 15 women
patients.