Pubdate: Sat, 03 Nov 2001
Source: Observer, The
(UK)
Copyright: 2001 The Observer
Contact: letters@observer.co.ukDetails: http://www.mapinc.org/media/315Website:
http://www.observer.co.uk/Author: Anthony
Browne, Health EditorCANNABIS A MEDICAL
MIRACLE - IT'S OFFICIALScientific Tests Of
'Wonder Drug' Give Patients New Hope.
Cannabis is a 'wonder
drug' capable of radically transforming the lives of
very sick people,
according to the results of the first clinical trials of
the drug. Tests
sanctioned by the Government are proving far more
successful than doctors,
patients and cannabis campaigners ever dared hope.
Some of the patients are
simply calling it a 'miracle'.
Taking the drug - which it is still
illegal for doctors to prescribe - has
allowed a man previously so crippled
with pain that he was impotent to
become a father; a woman paralysed by
multiple sclerosis to ride a horse
for the first time in years; and a man
who couldn't sit up in a chair on
his own to live without a
carer.
Until now claims of the benefits of the drug for certain
conditions have
been anecdotal. But the preliminary results of the UK
government trial,
started last year, suggest that 80 per cent of those
taking part have
derived more benefit from cannabis than from any other
drug, with many
describing it as 'miraculous'.
The results make it
almost inevitable that the Government will bow to
public pressure and
legalise the cultivation of cannabis for medical
purposes by 2002.
Scientists now predict that cannabis - first used for
medicinal reasons
5,000 years ago - will follow aspirin and penicillin and
become a 'wonder
drug' prescribed for a wide range of conditions.
Bowing to pressure for a
less hard-line attitude, the Home Office started
the first major cannabis
trials in the world to see whether there was any
scientific basis for its
use as medicine. A licence was granted to a
specially formed drug company to
grow the plants under controlled
conditions in a secret location in southern
England. Twenty-three patients,
suffering from multiple sclerosis and
arthritis, were recruited on to the
first trial, and given daily doses of
cannabis by spraying it under the
tongue, before wider trials were
started.
The remarkable stories of the patients will be revealed tonight
on the BBC
programme Panorama , which was granted unique access to
them.
Alex Ure, a former paratrooper, suffers from a severe spinal
condition. The
pain was so bad he considered suicide; he found legal
painkillers turned
him into a zombie and he couldn't have sex with his wife,
Wendy, for five
years. But after starting the trial he became a father. 'I
couldn't even
bend down and play with a child before - I could do anything
now,' he said.
His doctor, Willy Notcutt, of James Paget Hospital in
Great Yarmouth, was
sure the cannabis was responsible: 'His pain has been
sufficiently
controlled to engage in sex again,' he said.
Tyrone
Castle, a former publican, started suffering from multiple sclerosis
when he
was 21 and became so incapacitated he needed two helpers to winch
him out of
bed. He also suffered from uncontrollable spasms. Cannabis has
transformed
his life.
'It has really helped sort out my spasms. It helps me sleep
because I don't
spend the night jumping about. The difference in my legs is
unbelievable -
they are no longer stiff as a board,' he said.
Jo, the
wife of a school chaplain, suffered so badly from multiple
sclerosis she
would struggle to lift her legs up in the air six times.
After she started
the trial, she could lift her legs 25 times. 'It's
miraculous, really
extraordinary. I've never had any sort of relief of this
kind, and I've
tried pretty well everything,' she said.
Notcutt said the trial was a
success: 'The results have exceeded what I
dared hope for. We're getting 80
per cent of patients good-quality benefit
from the cannabis. For some we are
getting almost total relief from their
pain, with pain scores going down to
zero.'
Doctors believe cannabis could eventually prove useful in
conditions such
as osteoporosis, cancer, HIV and Aids, arthritis, spine
injury and certain
forms of mental illness.
'Cannabis from the
Chemist' will be shown on 'Panorama' on BBC1 tonight at
10.15pm