cannabisnews.com: Drug Maker Grows Pot - for Medicine Drug Maker Grows Pot - for Medicine Posted by FoM on December 01, 2000 at 16:50:05 PT By Craig Brett, Bloomberg News Source: Register-Guard Many new drugs are researched and developed in secrecy, but few grow in a greenhouse protected by electric fences and 24-hour guards.For GW Pharmaceuticals Ltd., different rules apply. The British drug maker is growing 30,000 marijuana plants with an eye toward a potential $700 million annual market for easing such ailments as glaucoma and nausea. The company says it's the only one in the world producing pharmaceutical-grade cannabis for clinical use. ``It's a medicine. About four or five puffs will ease the spasms in my legs within minutes,'' says wheelchair-bound Bill Thornton-Smith, 43, who takes the drug for his multiple sclerosis. ``If I wanted to get high, I would just pop down the shop and get a bottle of wine.''Recognizing that doctors are unlikely to prescribe a medicine that's smoked, GW has developed a spray. A device delivers the drug under the tongue and records the frequency and size of the doses for doctors, said Justin Gover, GW's managing director.The closely held company is testing marijuana specially cultivated at its secret location on 20 MS patients. Next year, GW plans tests in more than 100 people, each of whom must be licensed by the United Kingdom's Home Office. If the studies are successful, GW intends to market the drug for MS, nausea and arthritis by 2003.Thornton-Smith and about 85,000 others in Britain have MS, a debilitating disease of the central nervous system that can cause muscle spasms and paralysis. About 4 percent, or 3,400, of them, smoke pot as medical therapy, according to a report by the House of Lords.Marijuana may also alleviate phantom limb, a condition in which amputees sense pain where an arm or leg used to be, Gover said.The British government has said if the benefits of marijuana can be scientifically proven, it would propose an amendment to The Misuse of Drugs Act to allow its use.Still, GW faces a number of obstacles. Only about one of five drug compounds that enter clinical testing makes it to the market. And the benefits of marijuana, which remains illegal in much of the world, are hotly disputed.``While we hear a lot about people who say cannabis has helped them, we hear a lot less about the people who say it hasn't,'' said David Harrison, a spokesman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, which seeks more research on the drug. ``It has had quite nasty effects on their sense of balance and nervous systems.''Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Author: Craig Brett, Bloomberg News Published: November 29, 2000Copyright: 2000 The Register-Guard Address: PO Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188Contact: rgletters guardnet.com Website: http://www.registerguard.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:UK Medicinal Cannabis Projecthttp://www.medicinal-cannabis.org/Cannabis To Be Legal as Painkiller in Two Yearshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7342.shtmlCompany Developing Marijuana for Medical Useshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/5/thread5344.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by Janice Ochab on October 20, 2001 at 11:09:57 PT: marijuana made legal. Good Lord, I have been an R.N. for 26 yrs., I have never used marijuana but I have had pt.s whose quality of life has been helped tremendously! I see the problem as a money matter. Do you realize how much money drug companies would lose if it were legal. We are talking big bucks. In the past year I have become a chronic pain pt.I have had 7 surgeries in the past year and have Fibromalgia.I have metal plates in low back and neck, I have had four episodes of kidney stones and i am only 46. The pain medication i take if i did not have insurance would cost me $585.00 for a 22 day supply. That is all the insurance company pays for. I need it 30 days so I either cut back and deal with the pain or take like i need it for 22 days and do without the rest of the time. This issue with legalizing Marijuana is all about control and money. Believe me I am sure if I could smoke a little Marijuana I would have a lot less side effects.I do not smoke nor have I ever tried Marijuana, but I sure would throw my pills in the trash and light up-- Thanks for your Eyes and Ears--janice Ochab--Dothan, Ala. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Rev. Jonathan Adler on December 03, 2000 at 10:26:59 PT: Clinical Studies need natural cannabis Products Aloha Ethan Russo and others who commented on this article. Why is GW Pharmaceuticals allowed to produce, research and cultivate 30,000 marijuana plants, when our government says I don't have the same right at the Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute? Why does a foreign company have DEA approval to grow cannabis, but they are not willing to overtly support us here with a desire to cultivate an equal amount of plants for domestic use in the USA? Are our officials giving preference to a foreign company when we have a inherent right to supply US companies and research projects with our own US produced cannabis? Yes? WHY? Ethan, please call me at 1-877-medijuana toll-free or 808-982-7640 to discuss Dr. Dennis Israelski in San Mateo (650-573-2222) and your Migraine projects as Both requesting a waiver for Hawaii Medical Marijuana for YOUR projects now! I can supply "volcaic organic ultra-high grade medijuana for your studies and patients nation-wide with a religious exemption and other protections soon. Let's drop the hammer on them now!Mahalos from Paradise.... Rev. Jonathan Adler Hawaii Medijuana Production Facility - Since 6/96 Hawaii Medical Marijuan Institute [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by dddd on December 02, 2000 at 06:42:04 PT "a nasty effect" My aunt has MS.She has it really bad. My good friend Gordy,is a quadrapeligic.He is prone to severe spasms.In the 27 years he's been in this condition,he has been prescribed every,and any legal drug known to doctors.A couple of puffs of marijuana provides instantaneous relief. I wonder if David Harrison, has MS?It also has some quite nasty effects on ones sense of balance and nervous systems,as does parapelegia. I just dont understand why,anyone would purposely deny people something as simple,safe,and natural as marijuana,if they claim it helps them.Even if they just think it helps them,how could anyone with even a shred of compassion suggest that it is an inappropriate remedy? I wish that there was a way,that these anti pot obsessed people,could spend just one hour inside my aunts body,or be a quadraplegic for a day. Who do these people think they are?What sort of distorted view of humanity,and reality does it take,to try and tell someone who is paralyzed from the neck down,that marijuana doesnt help them? It's quite strange.....indeed......dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on December 02, 2000 at 05:16:02 PT: Really? ``While we hear a lot about people who say cannabis has helped them, we hear a lot less about the people who say it hasn't,'' said David Harrison, a spokesman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, which seeks more research on the drug. ``It has had quite nasty effects on their sense of balance and nervous systems.''I know these patients, and I can say with absolute conviction that when a patient does not like the effects of cannabis upon their condition, they do not use it. For a variety of MS symptoms in a high percentage of instances, it is simply the best available remedy. Current evidence even favors its benefits immunologically on the course of the disease. GW Pharmaceuticals is following a unique path in using extracts of the whole herb, thereby including the multitudinous cannabinoids and essential oils that make cannabis such a synergistic healing tool. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: