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UK: Cannabis hailed as pain-reliever
Clive Cookson The Financial Times
Monday 03 Sep 2001 Cannabis extract is proving remarkably effective at relieving severe pain in patients with multiple sclerosis and spinal injury, the British Association science festival in Scotland was told on Monday. William Nortcutt, a pain specialist at an eastern England hospital, gave the Glasgow meeting the first results of a clinical trial he is conducting in collaboration with GW Pharmaceuticals, the company authorised by the government to grow cannabis for medical purposes. For more than a year, Dr Nortcutt has studied 23 people with intractable pain, monitoring the responses of each patient to a succession of different cannabis extracts and placebos. The materials were administered through a spray under the tongue - a method that gives a much faster and more reproducible effect than eating cannabis and is safer than smoking it. "The joint is not analysable or suitable for medical practice," Dr Nortcutt said. Only one of the 23 patients failed to benefit from the cannabis spray and two others dropped out because of side effects. The remaining 18 experienced pain relief that varied from moderate ("at least I can sleep at night") to dramatic ("it has transformed my life"). Patients on morphine to control severe pain were able to cut their doses dramatically. GW Pharmaceuticals supplies extracts of plants cultured to contain different cannabinoid chemicals in their leaves, from which the sprays are made. Most patients favour a mixture with less psychoactive impact. "Of course you can get stoned on this treatment if you want, and one or two of our patients did push it to a high, to see what the effects would be, but that is not what they want," Dr Nortcutt said. "They are desperate for pain relief." Elizabeth Williamson, senior lecturer at the School of Pharmacy in London, said most patients preferred extracts of the whole cannabis plant, which contains 70 different cannabinoids, rather than purified tetrahydrocannabinol, the component responsible for producing the "high". Other clinical studies of cannabis are taking place in four other UK areas.
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