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Breakthrough as scientists find way to make cannabis soluble

Chris Gray

Independent

Monday 11 Dec 2000


Scientists have invented a technique for making cannabis soluble so
that it can be used in sprays or injections, which would remove a key
objection to its use as a medicine.

The team at Aberdeen University believes the breakthrough could lead
to the drug being available on the NHS within five years. GPs have
opposed the drug's medicinal use because it had to be smoked, which
carries a risk of cancer, or eaten, which is unreliable. Soluble
cannabis could be administered to patients in sprays, aerosols or
injections.

Professor Roger Pertwee, a reader in neuropharmacology at the
university, has developed and patented the new cannabis compound with
Dr Raj Razadan from Boston, Massachusetts, and Dr Billy Martin of
Virginia.

Professor Pertwee said the compound still produced a "high" in users,
but work was continuing on removing that without also stopping the
drug's pain relieving qualities.

Professor Pertwee, is recognised as Britain's leading researcher into
the drug's medicinal uses. His team's research has provoked interest
from drug companies in Britain and in America, where some states allow
cannabis to be used for medicinal purposes.

The medical use of cannabis was prohibited in Britain in 1971 but
there has been growing pressure for that to be reversed. Many multiple
sclerosis patients use the drug to relieve pain regardless of the ban.

 

 

 

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