Switz: Swiss Group Favors Legalization of Cannabis as MS Therapy

Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.

Bloomberg.com

Tuesday 21 Jun 2005

---

June 21 (Bloomberg) -- Solvay SA's cannabis-based product Marinol should be
legalized for treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis, the Swiss Multiple
Sclerosis Society said.

The Zurich-based group backs legalization and regulatory approval of
products containing an active ingredient of marijuana, spokeswoman
Annemarie Buergi said. At the right dose, they may be effective and offer
an option to treat symptoms such as pain, spasticity and insomnia, she said.

Companies including Solvay of Belgium and the U.K.'s GW Pharmaceuticals Plc
are trying to get approval for products containing the active ingredient of
cannabis to treat pain and other symptoms of multiple sclerosis, or MS. The
Swiss MS group issued the statement because of questions about its
position, Buergi said.

"The MS society favors legalization and, after a corresponding review of
its effectiveness and tolerability by the responsible authority, also
marketing approval of cannabis products in controlled dosage under the
supervision of a doctor and the quality assurance of the pharmacy,'' the
society said today in a OTS wire statement. The group represents about
10,000 people with the illness in Switzerland.

Currently doctors can't prescribe cannabis products in Switzerland. The
Swiss health ministry has in very rare cases approved a doctor's request
for medicinal use of Marinol. The drug is imported from the U.S. and costs
about 60 Swiss francs ($47) per day for two to three capsules.

A 28-year-old Swiss law banning the consumption and production of marijuana
is not enforced uniformly, and many users smoke marijuana cigarettes
without prosecution. Stores are allowed to sell hemp products in the form
of cushions or scent bags.

Marinol is prescribed as an appetite stimulant for people with AIDS and
cancer, contains a synthetic form of an ingredient found in the cannabis
plant. Marinol, also known as dronabinol, cut pain caused by nerve damage
in MS patients better than a placebo, according to a Danish study published
in the British Medical Journal.

GW Pharmaceuticals earlier this month said U.K. regulators want a new study
of Sativex, delaying approval of the cannabis- based treatment as a
painkiller for MS patients. The U.K. drugmaker in April won Canadian
approval to sell its Sativex spray to relieve pain related to MS.

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.



This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.

Feel free to link to this page!