cannabisnews.com: Dude, Where's My Pain? Dude, Where's My Pain? Posted by CN Staff on August 22, 2002 at 07:48:41 PT By Randy Dotinga Source: Wired Magazine Turning marijuana into a prescription medicine is a challenge -- and not just because pot is illegal. Patients with cancer and AIDS insist that the nation's most popular recreational drug relieves their pain and nausea, but as they get stoned their motivation often vanishes too. Not to mention that inhaling smoke five times a day can increase sick people's risk of lung cancer and emphysema. In a flurry of new research, scientists are trying to smoke out a solution. They're developing ways to take the high out of marijuana and transfer its legendary powers to an inhaler or a tablet patients put under their tongue. But a British expert told an international convention of pain experts this week that pot pills won't show up on pharmacy shelves anytime soon. "We've got a long way to go," said Dr. Andrew Rice, a senior lecturer in pain research at Imperial College in London, at the 10th World Congress on Pain in San Diego. While people have used marijuana to relieve pain for thousands of years, there's little scientific evidence that it actually works in humans, he said. New research projects may change all that. In 1996, California became the first of eight states to allow sick people to smoke marijuana to ease their symptoms. Three years later, state legislators authorized funding for medical marijuana research projects at the University of California at San Diego and its sister campus in San Francisco. While the federal government cracks down on the illegal cultivation and trafficking of marijuana, the National Institute on Drug Abuse actually provides the drug to researchers. At UC San Diego, researchers sting the arms of test subjects with capsaicin, the active ingredient in red chili peppers, and check to see if they react differently to the pain after smoking pot. Researchers working with animals use similar approaches on rats. They apply stinging chemicals to the rats and measure whether they appear to suffer less pain after getting doses of marijuana. UCSD researchers will also test the effects that smoking marijuana has on cancer patients who suffer severe pain, on multiple sclerosis patients who hope to reduce their muscle spasms and on AIDS patients coping with nerve pain. Some pain patients learn how to adjust their use of marijuana so they avoid getting high, Rice said. But researchers want to eliminate the side effects entirely. "If someone is looking to carry on normal functioning in terms of the workplace, driving and dealing with daily life, you really don't want to go around stoned all the time," said Sumner Burstein, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. This week, Burstein is presenting the results of his work with marijuana-derived drugs at a national conference of the American Chemical Society in Boston. He has developed a synthetic compound that is 50 to 100 times more potent than THC -- an active ingredient in marijuana -- but that, unlike THC, doesn't make people high. Researchers at a pharmaceutical company are in the second phase of testing the compound in people, Burstein said. He declined to identify the company, which he said doesn't want publicity. Rice, the British expert, said he isn't so sure that marijuana-derived drugs are ready for prime time. Even so, he said, scientists have learned much in the past two years about how the chemicals in marijuana infiltrate the body and bind with the receptors that produce its effects. Researchers have known about the active ingredient THC since 1964, and doctors can prescribe Marinol, a drug made from a synthetic form of it. But while some AIDS and cancer patients take Marinol to control nausea and improve appetite, experts say it's not as effective as marijuana itself because it doesn't absorb easily through the mouth. Also, Marinol costs more than a joint. Drugstore.com offers Marinol in the highest dose available for $14 a pill. Marijuana researchers face other obstacles. "These compounds are very difficult to work with," Rice said. What's more, smoking isn't healthy -- although in some cases, long-term risks don't matter. "If you have terminal cancer patients, they'll die before they run into the lung problem," said Dr. Mark Wallace, chief of a pain clinic at UCSD. But in general, doctors want to avoid "trading one problem for another." Unfortunately, there aren't many alternatives to smoking. The body doesn't absorb marijuana well through the digestive system. That's why people tend to smoke pot instead of baking it in brownies. Rice said scientists are looking at "delivering" marijuana in a fine mist with the help of an inhaler or through a sublingual pill that's absorbed under the tongue like some heart drugs. But there are other options too. Some researchers think the solution may lie in the other end of the alimentary canal -- in a suppository. Many patients will no doubt prefer to take marijuana the old-fashioned way. Source: Wired Magazine (CA)Author: Randy Dotinga Published: August 22, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Wired Digital Inc.Website: http://www.wired.com/Contact: newsfeedback wired.com Related Articles & Web Site:CMCRhttp://www.cmcr.ucsd.edu/Scientists Weigh Merits of Pot as Pain Relieverhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13829.shtmlMarijuana Eases MS Symptoms http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13794.shtmlSymposium on Cannabinoids in Pain Management http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13786.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #19 posted by FoM on August 23, 2002 at 15:19:02 PT BGreen I just watched the Hemp Car Video and the graphic they used looks just like the icon on the front page. That was so very kind of them to do for us! Thanks for telling me! [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by BGreen on August 22, 2002 at 19:19:58 PT I haven't seen it I've just been searching the pot-tv site and finding a few gems.Cannabis Rising is a pretty cool video, also.Cannabis Culture writer and Pot-icon, Ed Rosenthal, takes us on a tour of Amsterdam to give us an insiders look at the rapidly growing quasi-legal cannabis industry in the Netherlands and the issues swirling like smoke around it. Hash-Heaven. Cannabis Rising [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by FoM on August 22, 2002 at 19:03:51 PT BGreen Do you know if the movie Saving Grace is on line? I never saw that movie either. My husband got to see the Movie Grass this afteroon and really thought it was good too.PS: I will be watching the Hemp Car video a little later on. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by Dark Star on August 22, 2002 at 12:32:20 PT Kanabys It just goes to show that it's easy to be ignorant, but hard to be educated. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by kanabys on August 22, 2002 at 12:25:41 PT vaporizers, etc. Why oh why don't they acknowledge vaporization???????? This bumfuzzles me to no end. This method works great and greatly reduces the "bad" stuff associated with pyrolysis. Also, what do they mean it doesn't absorb well through the digestive tract? This is completely false. Make a properly prepared bhang and see how well it absorbs. Geez, are these articles skewed :/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by BGreen on August 22, 2002 at 11:02:56 PT p4me You should stay up all night like I do. The servers aren't maxed out then. LOL [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by p4me on August 22, 2002 at 10:52:57 PT Information for reformation I tried viewing the Jack Herer video at CRRH. The servers are at capacity and I will have to wait just like trying to see pot-tv. Yesterday, the Cannabis Culture site had an article that latter appeared at Cnews. I tried several times to read the article that is served by MAP and the servers were just too busy passing out information for reformation that I could not gain access because of the busy server.The information is flowing and the prohibitionist tide is leaving us. If Dim Son would ever speak on MMJ it sure would help the cause and that is the very reason it is Verbotten, if that is the language of the misadministration.We are now in the last stages of marijuana prohibition, the obfuscation era. As soon as the reformers can example obfuscation to the voting public the stage will close the curtain on marijuana prohibition. The prohibitionist could not clone enough liars and Christian fundamentalist fast enough to stop the ending of MJ prohibition.Well, it has been a year now that we have quoted the Gallup Poll in saying 34% of Americans are for MJ legalisation. What are they waiting on now- the FBI to put up the Uniform Crime Report for the year ended 8 months ago?1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by BGreen on August 22, 2002 at 09:38:21 PT The comment about the C-News graphics on the HempCar comes about 16 minutes into the video. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by FoM on August 22, 2002 at 09:31:01 PT BGreen I was sent a free copy of The Emperor of Hemp a few years ago and have shared it with anyone who wants to see it. I love that movie! [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by BGreen on August 22, 2002 at 09:25:46 PT Here's the link Sorry. The Emperor of Hemp [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by BGreen on August 22, 2002 at 09:24:45 PT 30 years ago and his message is exactly the same except for the statistics. I was going to mention the same thing to you.Did you see The Emperor of Hemp? It's the Jack Herer documentary that is also excellent. The stream at CRRH is a lot faster than Pot-TV's, although I don't like the way the video plays in the browser. It's important watching, though. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Dan B on August 22, 2002 at 09:14:54 PT Where are the bodies? Not to mention that inhaling smoke five times a day can increase sick people's risk of lung cancer and emphysema. Really? Where are the cases of emphysema and lung cancer caused by cannabis? I have yet to see one. Has anyone else found a confirmed case of cancer and/or emphysema caused solely by the smoking of cannabis?Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on August 22, 2002 at 09:09:27 PT Keith Stroup Just a comment BGreen about the movie Grass. I just smiled when they had Keith Stroup on when he was so young. Look, I thought he's still kicking after all these years and carries the same message so let's get on with changing the laws! [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 22, 2002 at 08:58:28 PT BGreen I was really tired but I did watch the whole movie and bookmarked it for my husband to see tonight. It was great! I'll check out the Hemp Car Video. I didn't know they did that for Cannabis News! That's really cool! Thanks! [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by BGreen on August 22, 2002 at 08:54:21 PT FoM, did you watch GRASS? Also, did you see the HempCar video? The guy commented on a CannabisNews.com sticker he had on the car. He said he put it on because of the good work C-News does. HempCar runs on pure hempseed oil [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 22, 2002 at 08:42:14 PT Suppository That is the only way the government would want us to have marijuana. Isn't that sick in a suppositiory and they think we are crazy! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by R-Earing on August 22, 2002 at 08:38:58 PT: Kinda funny "These compounds are very difficult to work with"Umm, take the plant,dry it out,dose as necessary is somehow more complicated than making Valium out of petroleum?I'm not sure, but wasn't pot the painkiller used when Wilma Flintstone gave birth to Pebbles? That was a long time ago(if cartoons are accurate)Don't Bogart that suppository mannn.Pass it on. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment