CANNABIS WAS A MEDICINE UNTIL 1972

It's only relatively recently that people have begun to realise that
cannabis might have a medical use. It was a medicine until about 1972 and
then it was banned - not because there was anything parricularly bad about
it, but because there was no obvious application.

There are a couple of cannabis-related compounds which are used as
medicines now. One is licensed in the US and is called Marinol or THC.

THC is the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis - that's the part
responsible for the high. It's used to suppress nausea and vomiting in
cancer patients, and is also used as an appetite stimulant, particularly
for Aids patients.

In this country we have Nabilone. It is not from the cannabis plant, but is
a synthetic analogue of THC. Its uses are similar to Marinol.

Those medicines produce the same high as cannabis does. To go one step
further and legalise cannabis for medical use is not that big a deal, I
would have thought.

My view is that, in the short-term, cannabis should be allowed to be taken
under medical supervison. In the long-term what's really needed are safer
ways to take THC, possibly by aerosol, nebuliser or skin patches.

That's going to take time, but in the meantime, patients who find cannabis
helpful go on breaking the law.

Last year a House of Lords committee recommended that cannabis should be
made available for doctors. That was a group of very eminent scientists and
doctors. They looked at the evidence over about a year.

This year there was a report from the Institute of Medicine in the US,
instigated by the White House, that made the same recommendation.

I was involved in a survey two years ago where we sent questionnaires to MS
patients who self-medicate with cannabis. According to our research, over
90 per cent get relief from pain and muscle spasticity.

The carcinogenic effects of smoking cannabis in cigarettes, however, may
make doctors feel that if they were to give cannabis that would be smoked,
they may be harming their patient.

On the other hand, if the patient is suffering and not getting relief from
available drugs, but could get relief from cannabis, then perhaps the
doctor should give it.

The most serious side-effect of cannabis is the aggravation of existing
psychoses. In some patients, cannabis will induce signs of schizophrenia -
but these seem to be patients who were predisposed to schizophrenia in the
first place. But how can you know you are one of those people?

There is also increased heart rate, which is fine unless you've got a heart
condition. Most people don't seem to get addicted. There may be a small
group of people who do - but that is very unusual.

In the argument to legalise it for medical use, the sought- after effects
are very straight forward: the drug will improve the condition of the patient.

The unwanted effects are probably the same for someone who would take it
recreationally, but the sought-after effects are quite different.

It's a stronger argument to say that someone should take cannabis to
relieve pain and spasticity than for someone to enjoy themselves.

What is needed is a Royal Commission which can look at all the issues
surrounding cannabis at the same time, but the Government doesn't seem to
be particularly interested in doing that.

It must be costing a lot of money to police at the moment. And it's not a
good thing for a country where nearly everyone is a law-breaker.

[SIDEBAR]

NO KNOWN OVERDOSES

* Cannabis is the most widely-used illegal drug in the world. Every
Saturday night an estimated 1.5 million people roll up a joint and have a
spliff.

* In the UK, doctors can legally prescribe Class A drugs such as morphine
and heroin. but not cannabis, a Class B drug.

* It is legal to buy cannabis seeds in the UK, but not to grow them.

* Three in five GPs agree that cannabis should be available for therapeutic
purposes.

* The Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics (ACT) estimates that 10,000 people
in Britain with serious illnesses regularly use cannabis to relieve pain.

* There have been no known deaths from cannabis overdose and in the small
amounts used to treat symptoms of MS and other conditions, few patients
experience the euphoric effects sought by social users.

* The only recorded death from cannabis occurred when a pedestrian was hit
on the head from an enormous block of hash. It had been dropped from a
helicopter by Mexican smugglers who were being pursued by US customs
officials.

* Only two Westminster backbenchers have lent their support publicly for
the legalisation of cannabis - Paul Flynn and Brian Iddon.