CANNABIS MEDICINE SEEN READY IN THREE YEARS

LONDON (Reuters) - A British drug company said Tuesday it hoped to
have a cannabis-based medicine ready to be prescribed by doctors
within three to four years.

Sufferers from diseases such as multiple sclerosis, which attacks the
central nervous system, have been calling for a pain-relieving
cannabis medicine for years and many have broken the law by buying the
drug from street dealers.

GW Pharmaceuticals said it was making progress in clinical studies
with cannabis-based medicines.

A small group of volunteers had been taking cannabis under clinical
conditions in order to determine the best dose. Some had taken
cannabis lozenges which dissolve under the tongue while others used an
inhaler.

Dr Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, said his company had
carried out its first studies in which human subjects were given
standardized extracts of cannabis.

``I am pleased to report that the progress of our development program
from the laboratory to human clinical dosing has proceeded without
problems,'' he added in a statement.

Guy said there was evidence that cannabis could relieve pain in
multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and neuralgia. His company
would be evaluating these uses in some 2,000 patients over the next
two to three years.

``Subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, we hope to have a
cannabis-based medicine available for prescription by doctors within
three to four years,'' Guy said.

GW Pharmaceuticals is licensed by the British Home Office (Interior
Ministry) to grow, possess and supply cannabis for medical research.

If trials are successful, the Home Office will change the law to allow
prescription of cannabis-based medicines, the company statement said.

GW has been growing cannabis in secure, computer controlled
greenhouses in the south of England.

Although the plants are the same as those grown for illegal
recreational use -- cannabis sativa -- the trials are designed to
maximize the drug's analgesic, or pain relieving, effect rather than
to make subjects so high that they do not care about the pain.