RESEARCHERS TRY TO MAKE CANNABIS FOR PAIN RELIEF

New Zealand researchers are hoping to discover the ideal form of
therapeutic cannabis to alleviate the suffering of Aids and cancer patients
without exposing them to harmful side effects.

Auckland University's Liggins Institute aims to develop a cannabis-like
substance that will relieve symptoms but not give patients a "physically
dysfunctional high".

The drug would be administered as eye drops or through an inhaler to
eliminate the risk of lung cancer associated with cannabis use.

Researcher Michelle Glass said taking the drug orally - in cookies, for
example - was unreliable because it took a while to enter the bloodstream.
It was difficult for patients to gauge its effect because its potency would
vary depending on what, and how much, the patient had eaten.

It was well recognised that smoking a joint relieved symptoms such as
nausea, pain and appetite suppression in Aids sufferers and cancer
chemotherapy patients, Dr Glass said.

"Other studies have shown that cannabis can help reduce spastic attacks in
multiple sclerosis sufferers, as well as easing phantom limb pain," Dr
Glass said.

But people not only became "physically dysfunctional" from the "high" they
experienced, they risked developing lung cancer, so other ways of
administering the drug were being searched for.