Medicinal cannabis set to be legalised

Cannabis has been shown to help ease the symptoms of some illnesses

Campaigners have welcomed the Home Secretary's announcement that cannabis may be legalised for medicinal use. David Blunkett said that if current clinical trials are successful the law will be changed to allow the use of cannabis-based prescription drugs.

The drug would be used to combat conditions such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis.

Supporters of the drug claim it has wide-ranging benefits, but opponents of legalisation say it is a potentially dangerous substance that can actually damage health.

There is scientific evidence to suggest that cannabis may be useful in treating a wide range of conditions.

And wide-scale trials testing the safety and efficacy of cannabis extracts are currently underway in the UK and elsewhere.

Cannabis is an antiemetic, a drug that relieves nausea and allows patients to eat and live normally.

Extracts also seem to benefit patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, stopping muscle spasms, and reducing tremors.

Change welcomed

Dr John Zajicek, of Derriford Hospital in Plymouth is leading a team responsible for clinical trials into the medical effectiveness of cannabis on MS.

The research involves 30 centres around the UK and has already signed up 275 patients.

It hopes to have 660 by next year, and results are expected in 2003.

Dr Zajicek said: "I very much welcome any potential change to the law, providing the results of the clinical trials are positive.

"Some patients have already reported an improvement in pain but it is too early to draw any conclusions."

He added: "If we are to provide the evidence that the drug is useful in alleviating pain in MS then there has to be a way of getting the drug to those patients.

"Changes in the classification of cannabis would help for that to be achieved and that is a good thing."

Choice

Chris Jones, chief executive of the MS Research Trust told BBC News Online legalisation would be "brilliant news" for MS sufferers.

She said it could be some time before results of the UK trials currently underway were available.

But she said initial results from a study into using cannabis to treat bladder problems had been successful.

"If cannabis-based drugs were available, people would have the choice and it wouldn't be muddied by the legal worries", she said.

"It would mean people would be able to choose whether they wanted to take it or not.

"We have been saying for a long time that we know people are finding benefits from cannabis."

But she said many sufferers, or their children, were forced to break the law in order to obtain the drug and find relief from their symptoms.

GW Pharmaceuticals is testing the impact of cannabis on MS under government licence.

Managing director Justin Gover told BBC News Online: "We remain confident that we will be able to present data to the Medicines Control Agency in 2003 with a view to bringing to market a non-smoked cannabis-based medication for the relief of pain, spasticity and other symptoms of MS in early 2004."

Arthritis

A spokeswoman for the Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC) welcomed Mr Blunkett's announcement.

Professor John Henry: 'cannabis is a harmful drug' She said: "We think people who use cannabis to relieve the pain of arthritis should be able to do so."

The ARC is backing research at the Kennedy Institute in London which looks at using a cannabinoid, an extract of cannabis, to treat arthritis.

But the British Lung Foundation warned making cannabis a Class C drug could lead to more people developing smoking-related diseases.

It called for health campaigns to be run alongside the declassification, like those run to warn of the dangers of smoking cigarettes.

And Professor John Henry of St Mary's Hospital, London said: "Cannabis is a harmful drug. It can affect people's ability to manage their lives, it certainly affects people's memory and in the long term, we don't know, but it will probably cause lung cancer to the same degree that cigarettes do."

"But it will probably

• Indice
• il Forum curato da ACT

News
• L'Emilia Romagna verso la sperimentazione
• Asti. Convegno su Cannabis e Sclerosi multipla
• Savona, contro il dolore un farmaco alla cannabis
• Sì della Sardegna
• Cossiga: sì alla cannabis medica
• Referendum a San Francisco
• Anche l'Umbria dice sì
• Friuli: sì del consiglio regionale alla Canapa Medica
• Approvato la mozione a Udine
• Approvato un OdG a Ferrara
• L'OdG di Ferrara
• La mozione di Udine

Approfondimenti
• Canapa, affari e movimento
di Daniele Farina
• Cannabis terapeutica e immaginario
di M. Crispi
• Cannabis e cannabinoidi
di C. Cappuccino
e S. Grasso
• Scheda
I potenziali campi di utilizzo terapeutico dei derivati dela cannabis
•Medicalcannabis
Il sito dell'ACT

Documenti
• La sentenza della Corte Suprema USA da Cittadinolex
• Noi non possiamo aspettare. La lettera a Veronesi dell'ACT
• Libro Bianco sugli usi medici della Canapa
• Il rapporto della Camera dei Lord
• Il rapporto australiano sulla Canapa Medica.
• Presentata al Senato la Proposta di Legge di Luigi Manconi.
• Terapia del Dolore: quadro normativo.

Rassegna Stampa
• Canapa medica, una questione politica
Marina Impallomeni su Narcomafie, giugno 2001
• Progetto di legge sugli usi terapeutici della Cannabis
• Il ministero della sanità inglese conferma: entro il 2004 saranno in vendita farmaci al Thc
• Preso con tremila dosi di hashish, assolto per uso medico.
• Hashish e marijuana negli ospedali
• Londra, «legale» fumare spinelli in strada o al bar
• In inghilterra verso la mariuana medica
• La nuova classificazione in Inghilterra
• Cannabis contro il dolore (Le Scienze)
• Canapa medica: nuovi segnali positivi
• Quando la Corte Suprema USA scrive la legge
• A Londra "apre" il negozio per la Canapa Medica
• Si cura con la marijuana: fatelo uscire dal carcere.
• Il Farmaco Cannabis
• Farmacologia, marijuana e glaucoma
• Arriva collirio alla marijuana per combattere glaucoma
• Corte Suprema USA. La rivolta della California.
• Stati Uniti, la Corte Suprema contro l'uso medico della
marijuana Washington Post
• No della Corte Suprema all'uso medico della Canapa
• La canapa curante
• "Contro l'epilessia al posto dei barbiturici"
• Cure alla marijuana l'Olanda fa le prove
• In Olanda la Cannabis diventa Farmaco
• Elezioni USA: sì a Marijuana medica
• Forum Droghe: "i risultati del referendum in Nevada e Colorado devono far riflettere"
• La canapa ad uso medic??A`?d???a?do su Viversani, Servizio di Maura Prianti
• Contro l'asma la marijuana prodotta dal nostro cervello da Kataweb salute
• Sondaggio Gb: 8 medici su 10 prescriverebbero cannabis a uso terapeutico da Kataweb salute
• Terapia del dolore: bravo Veronesi, legalizziamo anche la canapa medica
• Marijuana. Ecco le sue nuove meraviglie
Panorama 12 ottobre 2000
• Medical Marijuana and Free Speech
The New York Times, 20.9.00

Da Fuoriluogo
• L'erba alla corte di Bush
di Marina Impallomeni
• La Terza via dell'uso medico
di Tato Grasso
• Tabù crudele
di Maurizio Baruffi
• Benefiche Influenze
di Claudio Cappuccino e Tato Grasso
• La battaglia americana
• Una rete internazionale
di Enrico Fletzer

Dall'archivio di Fuoriluogo
Intervista a L.Grinspoon, psichiatra e docente alla Harvard Medical School
La difficile sfida dei pazienti californiani