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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Q&A: the cannabis painkiller trial
Nigel Hawkes The Times
Wednesday 20 Aug 2003 Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor, explains why hospital patients will be taking cannabis in a year-long trial being conducted by the Medical Research Council. Why is this trial being done? To try to establish whether cannabis-based medicines are effective painkillers. There is some evidence from trials in multiple sclerosis sufferers that they can control pain, but the MRC wants to do its own study involving 400 patients who have just had operations. They will be randomly assigned to one of four treatments, all given by mouth: a cannabis extract; tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis; a standard painkiller; or a placebo. Effects will be assessed over a six-hour period and patients observed and asked questions about how they feel. They can ask for additional pain relief at any time. How is cannabis used medically at the moment? It is used by some MS sufferers, who are technically breaking the law. No medicines containing cannabis are licensed at the moment, but GW Pharmaceuticals, who have carried out the trials in MS, submitted an application for a licence in March this year. The company has signed an agreement for Bayer to market the drugs, if and when they are approved. Is there a controversy over this? There is no real controversy over the trials. The only controversy is over the fact that MS patients who choose to smoke cannabis are technically risking a criminal charge, though in practice they are unlikely to face one. The most powerful painkillers for a century, after all, have been based on a far more addictive drug, heroin, so there is nothing in principle against finding similar uses in cannabis. Do you think they'll find the volunteers? They should have no trouble. The MRC has lined up 35 hospitals for the study, and there are always plenty of people recovering from operations who will suffer a short and fairly predictable period of post-operative pain. Volunteers should be warned, however, that they won't get high - the cannabis pills should create a sense of well-being and relieve pain without the mind-altering effects of smoking cannabis.
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