cannabisnews.com: Scientists Weigh Merits of Pot as Pain Reliever





Scientists Weigh Merits of Pot as Pain Reliever
Posted by CN Staff on August 21, 2002 at 11:05:01 PT
By Randy Dotonga
Source: North County Times 
Can you inhale your way past the pain and nausea of diseases such as cancer and AIDS? Plenty of marijuana advocates say you can, but scientific evidence has been nearly nonexistent. Now, scientists are stepping up their research into the painkilling properties of marijuana and drugs derived from it. Several research projects are underway at UC San Diego, which is home to the two-year-old Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. 
However, pain experts from around the globe learned Tuesday that a variety of obstacles may keep marijuana pills out of medicine cabinets for some time. "We've got a long way to go," said Dr. Andrew Rice, a senior lecturer in pain research at Imperial College in London, in a session before thousands of attendees at the 10th World Pain Congress at the San Diego Convention Center. The conference, sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Pain, is held every three years in a different country and will last through Thursday. Several scientists are presenting their research into how marijuana works and whether it could be a useful painkiller. The drug itself has been around for thousands of years, Rice said. Humans first began to cultivate marijuana about 8000 B.C., and Chinese and Indian people used it to treat pain as early as 2800 and 2000 B.C. The drug experienced a rebirth in the 19th century when even Queen Victoria used it, although reports differ as to whether she smoked it or took it in her tea. But while scientists know plenty about the workings of powerful painkillers like morphine, researchers have largely stayed away from marijuana because it's a dicey subject politically. "The existing evidence (about medical marijuana) is too insufficient in quality to allow any kind of informed debate," Rice said. That's changing, however. Six years ago, California became the first of eight states to allow ill people to smoke marijuana to relieve their symptoms. And in 1999, the state Legislature allowed three years of medical marijuana research to begin at UC San Diego and UC San Francisco. While researchers must go through several hoops to get their research projects approved, they can bypass federal laws that prevent citizens from growing marijuana for sale to sick people. In fact, the marijuana for research projects actually comes from the federal government, which grows it. In one UCSD study, scientists are stinging the arms of four test subjects with capsaicin, the active ingredient in red chili peppers, and comparing their responses to those after they've smoked some marijuana. More than a dozen subjects will be enrolled later. In another UCSD study that hasn't begun yet, researchers plan to enroll 40 cancer patients and test whether they get relief from severe pain by smoking marijuana. According to the center, other studies will look at the effects of marijuana use upon multiple sclerosis patients ---- doctors think the drug may reduce muscle spasms ---- and AIDS patients who suffer from nerve pain. While doctors can choose from a wide variety of painkillers, from simple aspirin to Oxycontin, many kinds of persistent pain remain immune to treatment, said experts at the conference. "We need clinical studies on the medicinal use of marijuana so we can settle once and for all whether it is a useful medicine for the treatment of various ailments such a pain, nausea and vomiting," said Dr. Mark Wallace, chief of the Center for Pain and Palliative Medicine at UCSD. It will take about two years to complete the capsaicin study, and three years for the cancer study, he said. Meanwhile, Rice told conferees researchers are trying to find ways around the down sides of marijuana ---- its tendency to make people get stoned and its failure to work when swallowed in a pill form. Researchers are currently looking at a variety of ways to "deliver" the active ingredient of marijuana to patients without making them high. Among other things, they are considering inhalers, suppositories and tablets that you place under your tongue like a heart drug, Rice said. Considering the early state of research, it's too early to predict when the public will get a marijuana medicine by prescription, he said. But UCSD's Wallace says he thinks the day will come. "I don't think it's going to be a cure-all. That's not going to happen," he said in the interview. "But it will be another option for us." Source: North County Times (CA)Author: Randy DotongaPublished: August 21, 2002Copyright: 1997-2002 North County Times Contact: editor nctimes.comWebsite: http://www.nctimes.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:CMCRhttp://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/10th World Congress on Painhttp://www.iasp-pain.org/02congopen.htmlMarijuana Eases MS Symptoms http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13794.shtmlSymposium on Cannabinoids in Pain Management http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13786.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by Ethan Russo MD on August 21, 2002 at 12:20:03 PT:
Darwin
The drug is CT3 or ajulemic acid. It is for real and is apt to be a useful pharmaceutical whenever it is finally approved. That could be a long time.Anyone that thinks that it will totally obviate the need for cannabis or cannabis-based medicine extracts is apt to be disappointed. See more info by putting those search terms on PubMed:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 21, 2002 at 12:18:01 PT
Here You Go The GCW
Got quite a few comments on the thread. I thought maybe you missed them.  Barr, an Ardent Clinton Foe, Loses Seat in Primary 
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13821.shtmlBarr Trails Fellow Congressman 
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13820.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on August 21, 2002 at 12:04:19 PT
confirmation
US GA: Wire: Barr Loses to Fellow GOP Linder
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1543/a05.html
Newshawk: Help us Help Reform http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Tue, 20 Aug 2002
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Copyright: 2002 Associated Press
Author: Dick Pettys, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Bob+BarrBARR LOSES TO FELLOW GOP LINDER http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1543/a05.html?397 
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on August 21, 2002 at 11:59:54 PT
P.S. (and this is all from MPP)
P.S.  Unbelievably, Barr has even gone so far as to say that free
    speech and the First Amendment should not apply to people who
    merely advocate drug policy reform. In a congressional
    committee hearing, Barr shocked even then-current drug czar,
    General McCaffrey, with his proposal that drug policy reform
    advocates be prosecuted under federal anti-racketeering RICO
    statutes. McCaffrey called the proposal "chilling."    You can read the transcript at:    http://www.RandforCongress.com/    in the "Why Bump Bob Barr" section. You can also check out the
    great press we have been getting for making medical marijuana
    an issue in Barr's re-election.    
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on August 21, 2002 at 11:53:07 PT
Thought I heard on public radio
Bob Barr lost to Linder... or who ever.That is good, unseating that one.HE'S OUT OF THERE!!!!Would you like to see Bob Barr -- the most fanatical Drug Warrior in
Congress -- out of Congress next year?Would you like to see him lose specifically because he is waging the
Drug War against the most helpless in our society -- medical marijuana
patients?Can you imagine the effect of him saying to his former congressional
colleagues, "I lost because of those drug reformers?"Would you like to fire a warning shot across the bow of every
congressional Drug Warrior, that they could be next to lose their
election, if they don't come around on medical marijuana?We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to bump Bob Barr out of Congress
on August 20, but to do so, we'll need the help of marijuana policy
reformers all over the country.Why once-in-a-lifetime? Because redistricting has put Bob Barr in a
very tight race against another Republican incumbent. The local
political pundits say the race is too close to call. A recent poll
puts Barr behind -- but with a large number of voters still undecided.The new district is so strongly Republican, that if Barr wins the
August 20th Republican primary, he will have a safe seat for as long
as he wants it.If we don't take out Bob Barr right now, he'll be around to torture
medical marijuana patients and block medical marijuana initiatives for
decades to come.How fanatical is Bob Barr on medical marijuana? Keep reading this
message, and I'll tell you about a Barr proposal so frightening that
even then Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey called it "chilling."
It's so unbelievable, I'll tell you how you can verify it yourself.I'll also tell you about the great candidate the Libertarian Party has
in the race, Carole Ann Rand, and how we plan to fire the final salvo
that will unseat this monster of a Congressman, Bob Barr, who believes
in murdering the critically ill in their wheelchairs.And that is no exaggeration. As the member in Congress who is most
viscerally and energetically in support of the war on medical
marijuana users, his policies are responsible for the death of author,
activist, and AIDS sufferer Peter McWilliams, and the torture of
thousands of patients who could benefit from this ancient medicine.Barr so dislikes medical marijuana, he dreamed up and got passed a
special federal law making it illegal for the District of Columbia to
even count the votes for a medical marijuana initiative that was
already printed on the ballot.That was declared unconstitutional.So, a year after the election, after the lawsuit outcome, D.C. was
permitted to count the votes. Lo and behold, the voters had supported
it two-to-one.But then Barr led Congress, which holds the purse strings of the D.C.
government, to override that vote of the people, and the initiative
did not go into effect.Medical marijuana activists in D.C. decided they would put the
initiative on the ballot again. This time Barr wrote a federal law
forbidding anyone to circulate an initiative in D.C. on the subject of
medical marijuana.That was also held unconstitutional.Now that D.C. activists have gathered the signatures to once again
place a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot, Barr is already
plotting legislative maneuvers to block its implementation.Bob Barr likes to champion himself as an advocate for privacy rights,
property rights, states' rights, free speech, free trade, and medical
rights.Yet, time after time, he promotes policies and legislation that
trample on those same rights he claims to protect. Barr is either the
most hypocritical or schizophrenic Congressman in Washington.Even when Barr does something that freedom-loving Americans can
applaud, it is something that would not have been necessary in the
first place were it not for the Drug War policies that he supports.When Barr is occasionally championing something that moves us in a
pro-freedom direction, it is always merely to undo the damage that his
favorite cause -- the Drug War -- has already inflicted on us.Barr claims to be a fiscal conservative. Yet the Drug War is one of
the most financially wasteful efforts in our history. We directly
spend fifty billion dollars a year just on enforcement.One study estimated the total cost to society of the Drug War,
including such items as lost taxes, prison construction, lost wages of
those incarcerated, cost of goods stolen, and added welfare costs, at
over 400 billion dollars a year.But it is Barr's fanatical support for the most extremist actions in
the drug war that best illustrates his misplaced priorities.While terrorists around the globe plot more attacks against our
country, Bob Barr's most pressing priority has been arresting the most
helpless in our society -- medical marijuana patients who are just
trying to relieve the symptoms of painful and debilitating diseases.It is at Barr's urging that the Drug Enforcement Administration has
stepped up its raids on medical cannabis clinics in California,
arresting caregivers, and throwing critically ill patients into the
street.According to Gallup and Pew Research polls, 73% of Americans support
medical marijuana, and believe that doctors and patients should decide
about what drugs should be prescribed to treat their life-threatening
diseases, not politicians.Barr even says on his website that we must ensure that health care
decisions are made by patients and doctors, not the government. Yet,
with blatant hypocrisy, he is the driving force in Congress preventing
just that for medical marijuana.We send congressmen to Washington to uphold the Constitution, not to
trample it and our rights. It is time to send Bob Barr home!
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Comment #2 posted by darwin on August 21, 2002 at 11:50:30 PT
Cannabis based medicine without the high?!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2207478.stmThis BBC articles says a scientists at UMass has developed a cannabis based medicine without the high. They claim it to be 10 to 50 times as effective. 
Now wait a minute. Isn't half the benefit of medpot the sense of well being the high provides? How can universities and pharm. companies be working so hard to bastardize marijuana, when there are supposedly no studies to show ANY medical benefit? 
How will they get it past the FDA with the marketing of "all the healing of THC with none of the high" when they WILL NOT accept that THC itself has any benefit?Could Dr. Russo comment on theit work? 
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Comment #1 posted by whatever on August 21, 2002 at 11:32:20 PT
me thinks this would hurt!
In one UCSD study, scientists are stinging the arms of four test subjects with capsaicin, the active ingredient in red chili peppers, and comparing their responses to those after they've smoked some marijuana. OUCH!
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