MINISTERS APPROVE NHS CANNABIS TESTS

THE Government is officially to sanction a series of trials, involving more
than 1,000 patients, into the therapeutic uses of cannabis, The Telegraph
has learnt.

The Medical Research Council and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will set
out the guidelines for the trials on January 11 at a closed scientific
meeting to be attended by Department of Health officials.

The Medicines Control Agency, the Government's licensing authority for
prescription and over-the-counter drugs, has agreed to advise the
scientists on the regulatory aspects of the proposed trials.

The Prince of Wales last week appeared to lend his support to the campaign
to legalise cannabis for therapeutic uses when he asked a multiple
sclerosis sufferer if she had ever tried the drug for pain relief.

The patient was later quoted as saying: "He asked me if I had tried taking
cannabis, saying he understood that, under strict medical supervision, it
was one of the best things for it."

But Peter Cardy, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said
that he was inclined to think it was for a doctor - rather than Prince
Charles - to make recommendations about trying cannabis.

The drug trials will mark the first time that the Government and its
agencies have given official sanction to investigating the therapeutic
value of cannabis and its derivatives, cannabinoids.

The move follows a report from a House of Lords scientific committee which
said that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for multiple
sclerosis sufferers and other patients who find it helps to relieve pain.
Each of the initial three trials will cost about UKP 500,000, with funding
from the MRC if it gives final approval.

The first trial will be for spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients. One
group of about 100 patients will be given the ordinary treatment for
controlling muscle spasms.

The second, similar-sized group will receive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a
cannabis derivative known to have an anti-sickness effect, as well as
producing euphoria.

A third group will be given standardised cannabis plant material in order
to see if THC is the most important compound or if there are other elements
of the drug which help patients.

The following two trials will be into the treatment of chronic pain for
dying cancer patients or those with phantom limb problems, and for acute
pain following operations.

Professor Tony Moffatt, scientific adviser to the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, said that the test on acute pain would be one of the easiest
because it would take only one dose of the cannabis, or its derivative, to
see if the amount of morphine could be reduced.

Prof Moffatt said that the trials were "all about getting cannabis into
patients who need it". He said: "Despite all the huffing and puffing over
whether it should be legalised, nobody has done anything about it. There is
no good scientific evidence that these materials are effective at all."

THC is not legally available to patients in Britain, as it is in America.
The Home Office and the MRC have, however, agreed to provide exemption
certificates allowing its use in clinical trials.

The British Medical Association maintains its opposition to any change in
the law until there is scientific proof of its therapeutic efficacy.

However, Clare Hodges, of the Alliance forCannabis Therapeutics, said that
she was delighted that the trials were to go ahead after years of pressure
from patients.

The tests are expected to start in the summer and to run for 18 months.

Checked-by: Richard Lake