LORDS BACK CANNABIS FOR PAIN RELIEF

Medicinal use of cannabis has come a step closer in the UK. A report
by the science and technology select committee of the House of Lords
has called for doctors to be legally allowed to prescribe the drug for
multiple sclerosis and chronic pain.

Committee chairman Lord Perry of Walton said the Lords had made the
decision 'primarily for compassionate reasons' despite accepting that
there was a lack of rigorous scientific evidence that cannabis
relieves pain.

While hundreds of patients in the UK smoke cannabis illegally for its
therapeutic benefits, clinical trials will not determine the efficacy
of the drug for at least another five years, the 53-page report
concluded. 'We consider it unjustifiable and inhumane to make them
wait quite so long before they can get supplies legally,' said Perry,
a former pharmacology professor.

The committee said it had heard sufficient anecdotal evidence of the
pain-relieving qualities of cannabis to warrant downgrading it from
the list of schedule 1 drugs - which can only be used in medical
research - to schedule 2, meaning it could be prescribed by doctors
and pharmacists.

Although the committee was not convinced about the drug's effect
against glaucoma, asthma and epilepsy, doctors should still be free to
prescribe it as they see fit, said Perry.

The report will add to the pressure on the government to relax the
blanket ban on cannabis introduced in 1973. But the findings have
split the medical community.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which is about to begin clinical
trials of the drug, supported the Lords' call for legal cannabis
prescriptions but said the drug must be given in a standardised form.

The British Medical Association said it was disappointed that the
Lords had not made the distinction between cannabinoids, the active
ingredient in cannabis, and the crude form of the drug which contains
a number of toxins.

Making the drug widely available could hamper research into its
effectiveness by limiting the number of patients available for
clinical trials, said William Asscher, chairman of the BMA's board of
science and education. The association, however, said it was broadly
sympathetic to the report.

The Department of Health rejected the committee's proposals, saying it
would not countenance the use of a drug that has not undergone
clinical trials.

Checked-by: Don Beck