DOCTORS VOLUNTEER TO TEST CANNABIS

THE therapeutic effects of cannabis are to be tested by two doctors who
have volunteered to run the first official patient trials.

Dr Anita Holdcroft, from Hammersmith Hospital, London, will investigate
whether the drug or some of its components can relieve post-operative pain.
A second trial investigating the effects of cannabis on multiple sclerosis
sufferers will be run by Dr John Zajicek, of Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.

Three hundred patients will take part in the post-operative pain trial and
600 in the MS trial. The doctors signed up for the trials yesterday at a
meeting of Government officials and scientists at the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society in London. Delegates were there to set guidelines for the trials.

Cannabis contains chemicals which are said to be useful as painkillers and
for treating illness such as MS and epilepsy. Many MS sufferers now take
the drug illegally. Dr Zajicek's trial will look specifically at the
ability of cannabis to control spasticity - muscle rigidity - in MS patients.

The Home Office has already granted special licences to a drug company, GW
Pharmaceuticals, allowing it to grow and supply cannabis for medical
research. An initial crop of 5,000 plants was sown in August at a secure
glasshouse in the south of England. The mature, 8ft plants are now being
cut off just above the stem and hung up to dry before being transferred to
a laboratory.

The aim of the trials is to obtain results that will be accepted by the
World Health Organisation. Findings from previous studies have not been
recognised as scientifically sound. Acceptance by WHO would pave the way
for cannabis to be rescheduled under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Standardised
preparations of cannabis or its active ingredients could then be
prescribed, subject to certain regulations.

Prof Tony Moffat, chief scientist at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said
that the tests should offer "conclusive scientific evidence" that cannabis
could have therapeutic benefit. The trials are likely to start in six
months' time. Assuming that they showed cannabis to work as a medicine, it
could be prescribed on a named patient-only basis before being licensed.

It would take at least five years for cannabis or its active components to
be fully licensed so that it was widely available on the NHS. One question
that must be settled first is how the drug might be administered to the
patient.

Dr Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, has developed a special
inhaler device for taking measured amounts of cannabis. Whether this system
or another - such as capsules or injections - will be employed remains to
be decided.