CANNABIS DERIVATIVE DRUGS MAY BE MADE AVAILABLE TO MS SUFFERERS

The government is clearing the way for the introduction of cannabis
derivatives as NHS medicines to treat multiple sclerosis and relieve pain
after operations if trials of two drugs prove successful.

The Department of Health is to ask the national institute for clinical
excellence (Nice) to begin assessing next year whether the treatments are
effective and worth the money they might cost the NHS. Ministers will today
announce consultations on the scheme.

The painkillers might be available on prescription in 2004 or 2005 if the
process of trials, licensing and NHS approval is completed on time.

One drug, cannabis-based medicinal extract, is an under-the-tongue spray
being tested by GW Pharmaceuticals; the other is a tablet called
Dronabinol, manufactured by Solvay Healthcare. Neither is expected to give
the "high" enjoyed by cannabis smokers.

There have been anecdotal claims for years that smoking, infusing or eating
cannabis can alleviate symptoms of MS including spasm, incontinence and pain.

The new drugs may also help treat nausea, leading to speculation that
cannabis derivatives could provide treatments for a wider range of medical
conditions.

The health analyses are being undertaken at the same time as a wider debate
within government and police forces over the criminal uses of dope.

The home secretary, David Blunkett, is downgrading cannabis from a Class B
to a Class C drug. While it still carries a possible two-year jail penalty
for possession, a softly softly approach to its use has been
controversially piloted in Lambeth, south London.

There are thought to be about 85,000 people in Britain with MS, a disabling
disease of the nervous system.

David Harrison, spokesman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said
yesterday: "If we are in a situation where we are going to have drugs
approved which look as if they have a significant effect on helping
alleviate symptoms, and it has been shown they can be safely used, we would
want people to have access to them as soon as possible."

But he issued a note of caution about the anecdotal evidence. "We know a
lot of people who say 'cannabis is wonderful; nothing else does this job
for me'. You hear less about those who try it and get horrible reactions.

"We have always said people who are using it for medicinal purposes should
be treated sympathetically."

The drugs which are being tested will need to be licensed by the
government's medicines control agency. But there has been criticism that
Nice, which must then decide whether the NHS should support the use of the
drugs, holds up the process for making drugs available after that stage.

Running its assessment in parallel to the licensing procedure for the
cannabis drugs should lead to such "Nice-blight" being avoided.

The Nice assessments will begin in April 2003 after some drugs trial
results are available. Consultation on what should be in next year's
programme starts today. Treatments for dementia, hepatitis C and leg ulcers
are among others proposed by the health department. Nice decisions only
directly affect the NHS in England and Wales but it is unlikely Scottish or
Northern Ireland health authorities would refuse to back the cannabis drugs
if they were supported elsewhere.