CANNABIS CAMPAIGN - LORDS HEAR THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE

Dr Geoffrey Guy, who last month won the first licence to farm cannabis for
medical research in Britain, has given evidence to members of the House of
Lords on the therapeutic potential of the drug.

Last Tuesday Dr Guy told the House of Lords Science and Technology
Sub-Committee that the Medicines Control Agency would only consider
approving a product he had developed if it was safe, of high quality and
medically effective.

"The committee asked me some extremely informed questions and I explained
the route I hope my research will take through legislation," said Dr Guy.
"While it might appear that the battle is half-won, we are actually a long
way from developing a product."

Dr Guy said he had not yet planted his first crop at the secret location of
his UKP4m greenhouse research facility in the south of England. "We hope to
plant within the next few weeks. We have had to gain Home Office approval
at every stage for obvious security reasons."

The work will initially concentrate on how to breed a patented plant with
the right properties and on how to administer the drug so that the
therapeutic value is heightened and side effects such as drowsiness or
euphoria are largely avoided. The cannabis used will be the potent seedless
varieties of the sinsimella plant, containing large amounts of THC
(tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol), the main active drug
ingredients.

Should the MCA eventually approve a product which has been developed by Dr
Guy's company, GW Pharmaceuticals, commercial manufacture would have to be
sanctioned by the Government.

Although GW Pharmaceuticals has won some government support, it is not
government-funded and the company will have to raise substantial amounts of
money to continue with their work. Dr Guy also suspects that much of his
time may be spent "establishing" therapeutic uses which are already widely
understood by those patients and pain sufferers who have been experimenting
with the drug - illegally - for some time. He points out that a recent
survey by Disability Now showed that almost 98 per cent of the magazine's
readers backed the legalisation of cannabis and many said they had already
used the drug therapeutically at home.

Meanwhile, last Monday42,000 viewers of BBC1's Watchdog Healthcheck
programme took part in a telephone poll on the subject. Following a filmed
report looking at the effects of the drug on patients suffering with
conditions ranging from cancer, Aids and glaucoma to multiple sclerosis, 96
per cent of voters were in favour of legalising the medical use of
cannabis. Only four per cent were opposed.

The programme-makers were surprised, both by the huge response to the issue
and by the size of the majority that came out in support of liberalising
attitudes to the drug.

Producer Karen Benveniste told the Independent on Sunday: "The medical
argument obviously came over strongly, although we certainly wanted to look
at the issue in an unbiased way and we made sure that we spoke to people on
both sides of the debate."

Just five minutes after the filmed report had finished more than 30,000
viewers had called in with their votes.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)