SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA-LIKE DRUG EASES PAIN - STUDY

LONDON, Sept 23 -- American researchers have shown that a synthetic drug
that mimics the main active ingredient in marijuana works like morphine to
reduce pain, they said on Wednesday.

In a letter to the science journal Nature, Dr Ian Meng and researchers from
the University of California in San Francisco explained how compounds in
marijuana, known as cannabinoids, affect cells in an area of the brain that
controls pain.

Marijuana has been touted as a pain killer for a variety of medical
conditions but studies of humans have produced inconsistent results and its
use for medicinal purposes is still controversial.

Meng's finding from his research on rats raises the possibility that
marijuana-like drugs could be used to treat pain.

"These results indicate that the marijuana-like drug can reduce pain by
affecting the same pain modulating neurons (brain cells) as morphine, but
through separate mechanisms,'' Meng said.

Unlike morphine and other opiates which can cause nausea and respiratory
depression, marijuana increases appetite without uncomfortable or serious
side effects. The addiction potential of marijuana is also much lower.

"The implications for future development or treatment would be looking at
different combinations of therapies, a lower dose of morphine combined with
a low dose of cannabinoid,'' Meng said in a telephone interview.

"Perhaps you could eliminate the nausea or at least reduce it and increase
the pain-killing effects,'' he added.

The research is the latest study into the medicinal properties of
marijuana. It follows a report by the National Institute of Mental Health
in the United States in July that showed cannabinoids could protect the
brain from the damage caused by injuries and stroke.

Meng and his colleagues tested the effects of the synthetic drug on a
region of the brain called the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM). By
measuring the time it took for rats to move their tails away from a heat
source they showed the pain-relieving effects of cannabinoids.

Rats given the drug kept their tails on the heat much longer than rats
which didn't receive it.

In a second experiment the researchers tested the effect of the drug on the
neurons in the RVM of anesthetized rats and found it produced the same
changes as morphine, but in a different way.

Some sufferers of arthritis have used marijuana to relieve their symptoms.
Cancer patients also claim it alleviates the nausea from chemotherapy
treatments and medical evidence has shown it increases the appetite of AIDS
sufferers with wasting diseases.

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Online.

Checked-by: Richard Lake