MS PATIENTS RECRUITED TO TEST CANNABIS PILL

A STUDY to test the pain relief cannabis can give people with multiple
sclerosis could pave the way to the drug's legalisation.

The Medical research Council has approved a grant of nearly one million
pounds for the first clinical trial into the health effects of regularly
taking cannabis.

People with MS, which effects the brain and spinal cord, say cannabis can
ease he pain, muscle stiffness, sickness and tremors associated with the
illness.

Doctors are preparing to recruit 650 patients for the three-year trial which
will test whether extracts from the Class B drug can really offer effective
relief. Campaigners say up to 10,000 of Britain's 65,000 MS patients break
the law by using cannabis to relieve the symptoms for which there is no
known cure. Several have been prosecuted.

The British Medical Association wants any ingredients in the drug that prove
beneficial in trials to be made available on prescription.

The MRC research will be co-ordinate by Dr John Zajicek, a consultant
neurologist at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, who specialises in treating
MS. The study will look at the ability of chemicals in cannabis to relieve
severe muscle stiffness, known as spasticity, in the legs.

MS patients, aged between 18 and 65, will be given one of three treatments
in capsule form: extract of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (a constituent of
cannabis) or a placebo. 'If cannabis alone is found to offer the best
relief for patients then we will have to publish that evidence and the
Government will have to make its own decision about whether the drug should
be legalised," said Dr Zajicek.

Peter Cardy, chief executive of the MS Society, said: "Thousands of people
with MS suffer from the often very painful symptoms of spasticity." He said
that it was inacceptable that many were driven to break the law."