Benefits of Cannabis Scrutinized in BritainSomewhere in the south of England, cannabis plants worth a small fortune on the street are ripening in high-tech glasshouses. But this crop, cultivated at a secret location under tight security, will never be rolled up and smoked.Instead, it will be processed into a pharmaceutical-grade extract as part of an initiative that could see cannabis return to medical respectability. Two British research groups are conducting the world's biggest clinical trials to determine whether the Indian hemp plant really does confer the medical benefits many users claim. They will know the answer in a few months. John Zajicek of Derrifield Hospital in Plymouth, southwest England, is leading a government-backed study which has just recruited the last of more than 660 multiple sclerosis patients, and he believes cannabis will pass scientific scrutiny. "I'm fairly confident we are going to find an effect in reducing spasticity, or muscle spasms, and it is also going to have an effect on bladder control," Dr. Zajicek said. Results of the 30-centre, placebo-controlled study on the effectiveness of cannabis capsules will be released next May or June. Meanwhile, GW Pharmaceuticals, a small biotech company holding the sole British licence to develop cannabis-based medicines, will publish its first authoritative clinical trial results for an under-the-tongue spray next month. GW has already reported good results in treating pain in intermediate studies and is optimistic this will be replicated. "One can be confident that the Phase 3 trials are going to yield results reflective of the Phase 2s," said Geoffrey Guy, GW's executive chairman. The group is growing 40,000 cannabis plants a year in the English countryside. If they are right, cannabis may be about to return to the medicine cabinet after a century in the wilderness. The British government has already indicated it is ready to alter the medical schedule of drugs that doctors are allowed to prescribe if the trials are successful, and Mr. Guy expects to have cannabis medicines on sale by early 2004. While shunned by modern doctors, cannabis has a long history of medicinal use, dating back to ancient Chinese times. The British herbalist Nicholas Culpeper described its analgesic effects in 1653 and Queen Victoria, whose physician described it as "one of the most valuable medicines we possess," is said to have taken cannabis tincture for her menstrual pains. It fell out of favour in modern medicine because of a lack of any standardized preparations and the development of more potent synthetic compounds. Nonetheless, many MS sufferers are convinced that cannabis helps their condition and an estimated 10 per cent of British patients are estimated to use it illegally. Those expecting a marijuana high, however, are likely to be disappointed. The new medicinal cannabis products are designed to minimize psychoactive effects. Another application for cannabis derivatives is to use them to stimulate appetite in AIDS and cancer patients. A French drug manufacturer, meanwhile, has taken the opposite approach by developing a cannabis drug that turns off this hunger switch.
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