CANNABIS BEING CALLED MEDICAL MIRACLE

British Government-Approved Scientific Tests Of "Wonder Drug" Give Patients
New Hope

Cannabis is a "wonder drug" capable of radically transforming the lives of
very sick people, according to the results of the first clinical trials of
the drug.

Tests sanctioned by the British Government are proving far more successful
than doctors, patients and cannabis campaigners ever dared hope. Some of
the patients are simply calling it a "miracle".

Taking the drug - which it is still illegal for doctors to prescribe - has
allowed a man previously so crippled with pain that he was impotent to
become a father; a woman paralysed by multiple sclerosis to ride a horse
for the first time in years; and a man who could not sit up in a chair on
his own to live without a carer.

Until now, claims of the benefits of the drug for certain conditions have
been anecdotal. But the preliminary results of the UK Government trial,
started last year, suggest that 80% of those taking part have derived more
benefit from cannabis than from any other drug, with many describing it as
"miraculous".

The results make it almost inevitable that the Government will bow to
public pressure and legalise the cultivation of cannabis for medical
purposes by 2002. Scientists now predict that cannabis - first used for
medicinal reasons 5000 years ago - will follow aspirin and penicillin and
become a "wonder drug" prescribed for a wide range of conditions.

Bowing to pressure for a less hard-line attitude, the Home Office started
the first major cannabis trials in the world to see whether there was any
scientific basis for its use as medicine.

A licence was granted to a specially-formed drug company to grow the plants
under controlled conditions in a secret location in southern England.
Twenty-three patients, suffering from multiple sclerosis and arthritis,
were recruited on to the first trial, and given daily doses of cannabis by
spraying it under the tongue, before wider trials were started.

The remarkable stories of the patients were revealed on Sunday on the BBC
television programme Panorama, which was granted unique access to them.

Alex Ure, a former paratrooper, suffers from a severe spinal condition. The
pain was so bad he considered suicide; he found legal painkillers turned
him into a zombie and he could not have sex with his wife, Wendy, for five
years. But after starting the trial, he became a father.

His doctor, Willy Notcutt, of James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth, was
sure the cannabis was responsible: "His pain has been sufficiently
controlled to engage in sex again," he said.

Tyrone Castle, a former publican, started suffering from multiple sclerosis
when he was 21 and became so incapacitated he needed two helpers to winch
him out of bed. He also suffered from uncontrollable spasms. Cannabis has
transformed his life.

"It has really helped sort out my spasms. It helps me sleep because I don't
spend the night jumping about. The difference in my legs is unbelievable -
they are no longer stiff as a board," he said.

Jo, the wife of a school chaplain, suffered so badly from multiple
sclerosis she would struggle to lift her legs up in the air six times.
After she started the trial, she could lift her legs 25 times.

"It's miraculous, really extraordinary. I've never had any sort of relief
of this kind, and I've tried pretty well everything," she said.

Dr Notcutt said the trial was a success: "The results have exceeded what I
dared hope for. We're getting 80% of patients getting good-quality benefit
from the cannabis. For some, we are getting almost total relief from their
pain, with pain scores going down to zero."

Doctors believe cannabis could eventually prove useful in conditions such
as osteoporosis, cancer, HIV and Aids, arthritis, spine injury and certain
forms of mental illness.