BENEFITS OF CANNABIS SCRUTINIZED IN BRITAIN

LONDON (Reuters) -- Somewhere in the south of England, cannabis plants
worth a small fortune on the street are ripening in high-tech glasshouses.
But this crop, cultivated at a secret location under tight security, will
never be rolled up and smoked.

Instead, it will be processed into a pharmaceutical-grade extract as part
of an initiative that could see cannabis return to medical respectability.

Two British research groups are conducting the world's biggest clinical
trials to determine whether the Indian hemp plant really does confer the
medical benefits many users claim. They will know the answer in a few months.

John Zajicek of Derrifield Hospital in Plymouth, southwest England, is
leading a government-backed study which has just recruited the last of more
than 660 multiple sclerosis patients, and he believes cannabis will pass
scientific scrutiny.

"I'm fairly confident we are going to find an effect in reducing
spasticity, or muscle spasms, and it is also going to have an effect on
bladder control," Dr. Zajicek said.

Results of the 30-centre, placebo-controlled study on the effectiveness of
cannabis capsules will be released next May or June.

Meanwhile, GW Pharmaceuticals, a small biotech company holding the sole
British licence to develop cannabis-based medicines, will publish its first
authoritative clinical trial results for an under-the-tongue spray next month.

GW has already reported good results in treating pain in intermediate
studies and is optimistic this will be replicated.

"One can be confident that the Phase 3 trials are going to yield results
reflective of the Phase 2s," said Geoffrey Guy, GW's executive chairman.
The group is growing 40,000 cannabis plants a year in the English countryside.

If they are right, cannabis may be about to return to the medicine cabinet
after a century in the wilderness.

The British government has already indicated it is ready to alter the
medical schedule of drugs that doctors are allowed to prescribe if the
trials are successful, and Mr. Guy expects to have cannabis medicines on
sale by early 2004.

While shunned by modern doctors, cannabis has a long history of medicinal
use, dating back to ancient Chinese times.

The British herbalist Nicholas Culpeper described its analgesic effects in
1653 and Queen Victoria, whose physician described it as "one of the most
valuable medicines we possess," is said to have taken cannabis tincture for
her menstrual pains.

It fell out of favour in modern medicine because of a lack of any
standardized preparations and the development of more potent synthetic
compounds.

Nonetheless, many MS sufferers are convinced that cannabis helps their
condition and an estimated 10 per cent of British patients are estimated to
use it illegally.

Those expecting a marijuana high, however, are likely to be disappointed.
The new medicinal cannabis products are designed to minimize psychoactive
effects.

Another application for cannabis derivatives is to use them to stimulate
appetite in AIDS and cancer patients.

A French drug manufacturer, meanwhile, has taken the opposite approach by
developing a cannabis drug that turns off this hunger switch.