CANNABIS TRIALS

Sir: Dr Bill O'Neill of the British Medical Association predicts that
cannabis derivatives will be available legally for medical use within a few
years. ("Straw's challenge over cannabis drugs", 5 January). This would
return us to the position before the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, when doctors
were allowed to prescribe cannabis, most often in tincture form.

On Saturday on BBC radio the Home Secretary said there was nothing to stop
those who believe cannabis has therapeutic value from applying for a Home
Office licence to test the drug. There are currently three licences
allowing medical research with cannabis.

However, to satisfy the Government of the efficacy of cannabis, large-scale
trials are needed using a controlled dose of the drug, and this cannot be
done without the involvement of the pharmaceutical companies, who have been
reluctant to touch cannabis because it is in schedule 1 of the 1971 Act - a
category of controlled drugs with allegedly no therapeutic value.

We face a chicken-and-egg situation: the Government will not move cannabis
from schedule 1 to schedule 2 (a prescribable drug with therapeutic value)
until it can be shown to have a medical use. And this cannot be
demonstrated to the Government's satisfaction without large-scale trials.

After reviewing the evidence - much of it admittedly small-scale or
anecdotal - the BMA recognises that cannabis may have therapeutic uses for
people suffering from conditions such as multiple sclerosis. The Government
should now facilitate the large-scale trials that are needed.

Gordon Prentice MP (Pendle, Lab),
House of Commons

Sir: In the 1960s, when I was in bed with flu, four of my sixth-form pupils
arrived to ask how I was. They put four large, beautifully rolled joints on
my bedside table and wished me well.

A day passed before I could face smoking anything, but when I did my
depression eased at once, and in two days I was up. I shall always admire
those boys for their daring altruism, and I am sure they are not nowadays
marching their sons to the police station.

Maurice Hill, Alicante, Spain