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Cannabis proven to help MS sufferers

By Hempology | November 7, 2003


From the Times Colonist, November 7th, 2003


TORONTO (CP) – The first large clinical trial looking at whether marijuana actually has
a medicinal effect for people with multiple sclerosis has found there is probably a clinical
benefit from taking the drug.




The British trial was designed to see if doses of cannabinoids, the active compounds in
cannabis, reduce spasticity in people who have MS. While it made no discernable difference
on that front, people who received the drug had less pain, slept better and had better
mobility than people who recieved a placebo.


“It’s fair to say that in the study, we did not see an effect on that pure muscle stiffness,”
said Dr. Alan Thompson of the U.S. MS research group.


“But when we went on to look at … the impact of that stiffness on people and on their lives
and on their mobility, we did see a fairly consistent pattern suggesting there was some benefit
in those taking the cannabis preparations.”


The study, which will be published Saturday in the British medical journal The Lancet,
is expected to be keenly scrutinized by both sides in the heated debate over whether marijuana
belongs in the medicine cabinet.


Anecdotal evidence suggests the drug is helpful for managing the symptoms of a range of ailments
but those opposed to its use argue there is precious little scientific proof to back up the
claims.


“The eyes of the world are on this study because each country has been wondering what they should
do about this,” Thompson, from the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, said in an
interview from London.


“What we now have is data that people can look at. And they have to decide on the basis of the data
data how they wish to proceed.”


A Canadian MS researcher praised the study.


“Aside from the research and moving ahead that way, I hope that this study will also stimulate
some better, more rational laws regarding cannabis for medical purposes,” said Dr. Luanne
Metz, a neurologist and a professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Calgary.


Currently, MS patients can get a waiver allowing them to possess and grow marijuana – so long
as they get a doctor to attest to the fact they have MS and specify the dose they should use.
Because so little research has been done on cannabis and because the strength of marijuana can
vary greatly, that puts doctors in an ethical bind.


“How do you do that? And how do you prescribe smoked cannabis when you know that it puts three to
four times the tar in the lungs as a cigarette does?” asked Metz, who co-wrote a commentary
on the study for the journal with research associate Stacey Page.


“It puts physicians in a bad spot and patients in an impossible spot.”


The research team followed 611 people with multiple sclerosis from across Britian. Participants
were randomly assigned to receive oral cannabis extract, a synthetic version of a cannabinoid
known as tetryhydrocannabinol or THC or a placebo.


Neither patients nor their doctors were told who was receiving which treatment, though the
authors conceded that many of the people getting cannabis guessed that they were on the drug.

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