A NEW LEAF

Getting Patients High Is The Least Of What Pot-derived Drugs Can Do

Though it would be nice to think that chronic pain sufferers could at least
enjoy a legal pot buzz once in a while, medicinal marijuana, with the
exception of a few lucky folks grandfathered into a state-sponsored plan
from the '70s, isn't really about getting wrecked. But that--no doubt due
to our nation's queer puritanical hang-ups--doesn't seem to matter much to
anti-pot activists. To them, the thought of doling out weed in any form
just ain't gonna cut it. This, in a society where, like, half the
population's on prescribed mood lifters. The mind reels.

But that's not to say cannabis-based drugs--chock full of friendly
substances derived from the marijuana plant--don't have a bright future in
medicine. In fact, quite the opposite is true. And right here in the good
old regressive U.S.

Aside from those who tap the government's stash--300 joints a month,
professionally rolled in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, says Paul
Armentano, director of research for the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, a Washington-based pot lobby (don't be
jealous, he adds; the stuff's not quality)--a great number of people
suffering from the nausea brought on by chemotherapy treatment for cancer
or the debilitating effects of AIDS take Marinol, which was brought to
market in 1985 and today remains the only cannabis-based drug approved by
the Food and Drug Administration.

A synthetic version of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol), pot's most famous
ingredient, Marinol was recently reclassified from a Schedule II drug (the
second-most controlled category) to a less intimidating Schedule III. It's
exceedingly rare, says a spokeswoman for Unimed, the Illinois company that
manufactures Marinol, for a drug to be reclassified downward in this
fashion. And it bodes well for the future acceptance of cannabis-based
pharmaceuticals.

Marinol is so safe and established, in fact, that whatever controversy
still surrounds it remains pretty limited to the problem of delivery. Since
it comes in pill form, Marinol might not take effect for two to four hours.
That's a long time to wait if you're trying not to vomit. And when it hits
the liver, the drug is converted into a stronger compound than what you'd
get from bogarting a fatty. So users, says NORML's Armentano, get more
messed up than casual tokers. (A tragedy, that.)

For this reason, Unimed plans to team up with another company to make an
inhaler that would introduce the drug in a fashion much closer to smoking it.

Attempting to improve upon Marinol, New York City-based Atlantic Technology
Ventures is in the early testing phase of CT-3, a synthetic THC derivative
whose technical specs are quick to assure a drug-fearing society that it
prevents inflammation and eases pain to sufferers of neurological diseases,
cancer, glaucoma gastrointestinal and other disorders without that annoying
high. (Told you medicinal marijuana isn't as fun as it seems.)

The cannabis-based dexanabinol is another promising drug engineered
specifically for traumatic brain injury. Gale Smith, a spokeswoman for the
New Jersey-based Pharmos, describes her company's product as a synthetic
cannabanoid that's the exact mirror image of THC. (Twisting cannabis in yet
another new direction, the French company Sanofi-Synthelabo is now working
to reverse one of the substance's most well-known side effects--the
munchies--for the treatment of obesity.) Smith says fiddling with the
compound's structure robs the drug of its psychotropic effects, giving
users "all the medicinal effects without the high."

"People ask us why we've taken that out," she laughs, "because we could've
made a lot more money otherwise." (Don't expect to see that on Pharmos'
application to the FDA.)

Dexanabinol is designed to prevent brain damage and inflammation after
trauma. To explain the drug's effect, Smith describes a car accident in
which the driver suffers a head injury. Though rescue workers find him
lucid at the scene, the driver slips into a coma before reaching the
hospital. This is because the neurons that died from the initial impact
send biochemical signals that kill off previously unaffected brain cells.

The hope is that a dexanabinol injection at the accident scene can prevent
the added damage that occurs after what Smith describes as "this cascade of
toxic compounds" invade the brain. The drug's anti-inflammatory properties
should also prevent the brain from swelling dangerously after injury.

Dexanabinol, which had its origins at Hebrew University in Israel, is in
the final phase of its clinical trials, which could have its application
for approval before the FDA by year's end. Down the line, Smith says Pharma
hopes to win approval in treating the side effects of stroke, multiple
sclerosis, diabetes, cancer and "anything in the central or peripheral
nervous system," as well as cardiovascular problems. The drug's one major
downside, she adds, is that "the administration could get tricky," as it's
now available only for injection. But the company's investigating an oral
alternative.

Taking medicinal marijuana to a whole new breadth is the British GW
Pharmaceuticals' "portfolio" of cannabis-based drugs used to treat
sufferers of everything from AIDS to spinal cord injury, phantom limb pain
and arthritis, to brain diseases such as depression, schizophrenia and even
Tourette's Syndrome. These drugs, like most of the medicinal marijuana
alternatives to come about since Marinol was approved almost two decades
ago, utilize more than just THC. They remain in the testing phase, each
drug being put through its paces separately for use in treating each
symptom or disease.

GW's drugs offer varied ratios of THC and another pot-derived compound,
Cannabidiol (CBD), to treat common symptoms of neurological diseases. The
portfolio boasts pain relief, anti-convulsant, anti-psychotic,
anti-inflammatory, appetite-stimulant and similar properties.

Derived from actual pot plants (guess you can do that sort of "research" in
England) and administered as an under-the-tongue spray, GW's products, say
its spec sheets, draw from "hundreds of years of cannabis use" that offer
"compelling evidence of safety."

The specs go on to explain that the ratio between a normal and a lethal
dose of cannabis is 40,000 to 1--which is especially impressive considering
morphine's ratio is 50 to 1, and aspirin's a shocking 23 to 1. And like
most companies that manufacture cannabis-based drugs, GW wants you to know
that you can reap the drugs' medical benefits without actually getting high.

So much for baking on your sick bed.