DOCTORS BEGIN NHS CANNABIS TRIALS

HOSPITAL trials have begun on a cannabis spray intended to relieve the
symptoms of multiple sclerosis sufferers and of other National Health
Service patients in need of long-term pain-relief treatment.

Doctors began prescribing the drug and a capsule version to NHS patients at
nine hospitals around Britain, including Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow, after
permission for the trials was granted earlier this year.

At the time, GW Pharmaceuticals, the British firm manufacturing the
treatments, said it hoped to test the drug on up to 1,000 patients.

The trials come as ministers are said to be ready to press ahead with plans
to reclassify cannabis, a move which will be seen as the effective
decriminalisation of the drug.

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, is expected to announce the changes
later this month after a pilot scheme in south London, which allowed police
to concentrate on more serious crimes, was judged to have been a success.

The purported medicinal benefits of cannabis have long been championed by
MS sufferers, but until the start of the clinical trials they have had to
buy the drug illegally.

If the trials are successful, the drug could be licensed by the Medicines
Control Agency and made available on prescription by 2004.

Early results from the first two phases of the tests were said to have been
encouraging, with MS sufferers and patients with spinal cord injuries
reporting significant improvements in their symptoms.

GW Pharmaceuticals is expected to use up to 90 tonnes of the drug each year
to produce enough for the trials, with 30 tonnes grown under greenhouses in
the south of England.

The drug is administered to patients under the tongue, either in the form
of a spray or a capsule.

Gartnavel Hospital is one of a number around the country taking part in the
trials, after the west Glasgow hospitals ethics committee gave permission
for the trials to go ahead. However, trials at Derriford Hospital, in
Plymouth, have halted after a charity refused a ?150,000 grant to extend
the project.

MS sufferers have frequently complained that they have been criminalised by
having to purchase the drug illegally, but, under the government's
proposals for the reclassification of cannabis, the drug should be more
readily available and with less risk of prosecution.

Cannabis is currently classified as a class B drug, possession of which can
bring a five-year prison sentence. As a class C drug, its possession would
merit only a police warning or a small fine.