MS VICTIMS TO PUFF POT TO TEST MEDICINAL EFFECTIVENESS

The Guardian

LONDON -- The first human trials of the medicinal properties of marijuana
will controversially involve inhaling substances made from the entire weed,
not derivatives, it became clear Tuesday.

Dr. Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, a company he set up with a
license from the British Home Office to explore the medical uses of
marijuana, told the House of Lords select committee on science and
technology in London that he expected to move to clinical trials, probably
with multiple sclerosis sufferers, within the next few years. He hoped the
drug would be licensed as a medicine within five.

It became clear during his evidence that he believes it will be difficult to
discover exactly what combination of cannabinoids -- molecules derived from
the plant -- has the pain-relieving, muscle-relaxing effect that sufferers
from MS and other diseases claim they experience when smoking the illegal drug.

Asked about synthesizing the chemicals found in the plant in order to
produce a safe medicine, he said, ``I don't see the value in taking apart
something that seems at the moment to work.''

The British Medical Association, which gave respectability to calls for the
medicinal properties of the drug to be explored, backed the legalization of
cannabinoids -- not cannabis itself -- to treat MS and other conditions.

But there has been a growing lobby in Britain for legalization of marijuana
itself. A number of judges and police officers are among those who think
criminalization is a mistake.

Next year about two dozen volunteers will be allowed to inhale a small dose
of cannabis as part of the first human clinical trials. They will be exempt
from prosecution under the terms of a Home Office license.

Guy said he thought the beneficial effect of the drug occurred within the
first minute of inhaling smoke from a joint, and that the psychotropic
effect came only later once a much larger quantity had reached the brain.

Asked how he proposed to deliver the drug into the patient's system, he
said: ``I have changed my mind five times in the last six months.'' His
current feeling was that inhaling brought fast pain relief.

``The smoking route is very, very intriguing indeed,'' he said. But he was
not proposing any sort of reefer -- it would more likely be ``something
between an aerosol and a vaporizer.'' There were, however, people who
claimed the effects of cannabis lasted longer if they ingested it orally.

Guy has spent some $16 million so far in his marijuana project and has
invested in a Dutch medicinal marijuana breeding company called HortaPharm
BV, which has the biggest ``living library'' of marijuana plants in the
world. GW Pharmaceuticals is about to begin seeding in a secret,
high-security greenhouse complex in the south of England.

Besides helping to lessen pain and spasticity, marijuana is also said to
alleviate nausea in patients taking anti-cancer drugs. There is also
evidence that it may stimulate the appetites of AIDS patients and assist in
the treatment of glaucoma.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett