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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: MS patients should get cannabis, say experts Tara Womersley, Health Correspondent The Scotsman Friday 07 Nov 2003 CANNABIS should be prescribed to patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, researchers claimed yesterday. The world's largest study on cannabinoids and MS found that patients reported significant benefits when taking cannabis-based drugs. Scientists studied more than 600 patients with MS at 33 neurology and rehabilitation centres across the UK during a three-year trial. Their research, published in the medical journal the Lancet today, showed mixed benefits of the drug. Walking time increased by up to 12 per cent in patients taking cannabis-derived drugs and the majority of the patients reported relief from distressing symptoms like pain, spasm, and sleeping problems compared to those taking a placebo. While researchers found no overall detectable changes in muscle stiffness, about two-thirds of the patients taking cannabis-based drugs said they noticed an improvement. One reason that there was no clinical evidence for that could be because of failings in the measure used to test this. However, almost half the patients receiving the placebo also reported an improvement. Dr John Zajicek, who led the study funded by the Medical Research Council, said: "On the basis of this evidence I would argue that there is now enough evidence to make cannabis-derived drugs available to some MS patients on the NHS, dependent on cost. "The study found mixed benefits, but it has taken the treatment of MS one step forward and the benefits outweighed the non-benefits. Our conclusion was that cannabis may be helpful for some of the symptoms for some people." Cannabis is due to be downgraded from a class B to a class C drug in January, making possession a largely non-arrestable offence.
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