Doctor's plea to make cannabis medicines legal
Bryan Christie Health Correspondent

Doctors want to be free to prescribe cannabis for their patients rather
than forcing them to turn to drug dealers to obtain illegal supplies.

The British Medical Association wants the use of cannabis derivatives to
be legalised for medicinal purposes to help in the treatment of
conditions such as multiple sclerosis and cancer.

The call came after an emotional debate yesterday at the BMA conference
in Edinburgh when doctors warned of patients being left to run the risk
of imprisonment to secure supplies of a substance which helped relieve
their symptoms.

"The sick and the dying should be able to turn to their doctor for help,
not to their drug dealer," Dr Steven Hajioff, a Londonbased hospital
researcher told the conference.

Dr Therese van Goetz, a junior doctor from London, said doctors had a
duty to help relieve the suffering of their patients and the substances
contained in cannabis could help that. "Patients are not just going to
drug dealers they are going to the courts, they are going to prison."

Originally the conference was asked to support a motion that cannabis
should be legalised for medicinal purposes, but that was ammended later
to specify that it is the constituents of cannabis doctors want
legalised rather than the drug itself.

Those are known as cannabinoids and one nabilone is already licensed
in Britain for use in hospitals to prevent nausea in cancer patients
receiving chemotheraly. Cannabis has been found to reduce muscle spasm
in people with MS and it also helps to relieve pain among cancer
patients.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of research, stressed that doctors
would not be prescribing cannabis joints for patients to smoke. "It is
possible to extract derivatives from the cannabis plant which can be
taken by other routes than smoking."

However some studies have suggested that smoked cannabis is more
effective than its derivatives. Dr Michael Crowe, a GP from
Leicestershire, toldt eh conference: "Some cannabinoids are on the
market but they do not give the benifits that smoked cannabis appears to
give."

But Professor Jack Howell, chairman of the BMA's board of science, which
is preparing a report on the medicinal uses of cannabinoids, said after
the debate that the purified ingredients would probably be administered
as pills, inhaled as a spray or injected. He said: "I would be
astonished if it were by smoking, because we're talking about a pure
substance and there are better ways of administering it."

Although doctors voted by a substantial majority to call for the
legalisation of cannabis derivatives for medicinal purposes, there was
some opposition to the move.

Dr Edward Tierney, a GP from Rochdale, said there were many harmful
sideeffects of using cannabis including increased agitation and
anxiety, distortion of time and space, apathy and indifference.

He described cannabis as a 'dirty drug' which contained more than 50
compounds. "Alternative drugs must be found. There cannot be any
justification for promoting the use of cannabis."

But other speakers said the failure to provide a safe and legal
medicinal form of the drug was forcing hundreds of patients to flout the
law. Dr Hajioff said: "This is humane, this is politically acceptable
now. Let us help keep sick and dying out of the hands of the evil and
criminal."

The BMA report on the medicinal uses of cannabis is expected to be ready
in September and is expected to lead to recommendations for action.

A cautious welcome was given to the BMA move by the Multiple Sclerosis
Society. Its chief executive, Peter Cardy, said: "People with MS will be
encouraged by the support doctors are showing for treatment of
intractable symptoms."

However he added he was suprised that doctors were advocating wider use
of substances derived from cannabis before convincing scientific trials
have taken place.