DOCTORS CHECK CANNABIS FOR MEDICAL BENEFIT

LONDON - Reuter Two clinical research doctors would volunteer to run the
first government-sanctioned trials on the therapeutic value of cannabis,
the governing body for British pharmacists said yesterday.

Two separate trials, examining the effects of cannabis and cannabinoids
(its active ingredients) on spasms in multiple sclerosis patients and on
pain sufferers, would follow new post-operative protocols to give the
results scientific weight, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great
Britain said.

"Although trials into the therapeutic use of cannabis and cannabinoids have
taken place in the past, they have never been accepted by the World Health
Organisation as proof of therapeutic benefit," society chief scientist Tony
Moffat said.

"Nobody has yet conclusively proven there is anything in cannabis which
will help alleviate suffering."

If the trial results are conclusive, the World Health Organisation line
will probably change, paving the way for Britain to reclassify cannabis for
controlled medical use.

The new clinical tests, each of which would cost about A3500,000 (NZ$1.54
million) and involve about 300 volunteers, should present their findings
within two years.

A spokesman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society said: "We are very pleased
to have taken this significant step towards proper trials."

British doctors were allowed to prescribe cannabis till 1973, when it was
removed from a list of prescription drugs that still includes heroin and
morphine.