cannabisnews.com: Lords Back Medical Use of Cannabis





Lords Back Medical Use of Cannabis
Posted by FoM on March 22, 2001 at 09:25:32 PT
Health News
Source: ITN New Media
A Lords select committee report is recommending that cannabis-based drugs used for medical purposes should be legalised. It also calls for a speeding up of research into developing medicines based on the plant. The Lords select committee on science and technology says users of cannabis to ease conditions such as multiple sclerosis should not be prosecuted.
The report also accuses the drugs licensing body, the Medicines Control Agency (MCA), of delaying the development of cannabis-based drugs.The study said that cannabis had a history of medical use stretching back hundreds of years.It feared the MCA's insistence on demanding new data on its toxic side effects could delay the development of drugs by up to three years.The Lords report said: "In the absence of a viable alternative medicine, and though we would not encourage smoking of cannabis, we consider it undesirable to prosecute genuine therapeutic users of cannabis who possess or grow cannabis for their own use."This unsatisfactory situation underlines the need to legalise cannabis preparations for therapeutic use." There were 89,000 prosecutions involving cannabis in 1998.The numbers of people involved in using cannabis for therapeutic purposes is unknown, although thought to be small.Two major trials into its therapeutic uses were recently given grants worth a total of £1.5 million by the Medical Research Council. The Lords report criticised the slow pace of the studies and said the stigma surrounding cannabis was "inhibiting" research in the area.In evidence to the Lords hearing, Home Office minister Charles Clarke said the Government would not stand in the way of any MCA-approved cannabis-based drug being prescribed by doctors.One company, G W Pharmaceuticals, have claimed they could have a cannabis-based prescription medicine available by 2003. Claire Hodges, a multiple sclerosis sufferer and a member of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, said: "The report is recognising that there is a problem and we welcome that."At the moment, the law is a nonsense. People are prosecuted for using something that eases their pain and distress, which is appalling." Note: "This unsatisfactory situation underlines the need to legalise cannabis preparations for therapeutic use" - Lords report into cannabis. Source: ITN New Media (UK)Published: March 22, 2001Address: 200 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8XZPhone: 020 7833 3000Fax: 020 7430 4868Letters: editor itn.co.uk Website: http://itn.co.uk/index.shtml Related Articles & Web Site:UK Medicinal Cannabis Projecthttp://www.medicinal-cannabis.org/Lords Back Cannabis Use http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9113.shtmlCameroon To Import Cannabishttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8240.shtmlScientists Develop Cannabis Sprayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7966.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on March 26, 2001 at 15:55:37 PT:
News Brief
Government Criticised Over Attitude To Therapeutic Cannabis UseSource: Health-NewsAuthor: Vivienne RussellPublished: March 22, 2001Copyright: Health Media Ltd 2001http://www.health-news.co.uk An influential House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has once again criticised the government’s failure to help speed up research into the therapeutic use of cannabis.In a report published today (22/03/01) – the committee’s second on the subject – the committee expressed its concern at the “slow progress made by the two Medical Research Council (MRC)-funded trials” and suggested that bureaucratic obstacles are impeding research into medical use of the substance.Two cannabis trials, allocated more than £1.5 million in public funding, are currently under way at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and Hammersmith Hospital in London. However, recruitment of 600 participants for the Plymouth trial, which was launched in April, has only just begun, and details of the London trial, announced in August, have yet to be finalised. The committee noted that the “time scale for developing usable therapeutic preparations from these trials is extremely long”.The Medicines Control Agency (MCA) was also criticised by the committee for insisting on classifying cannabis as a “new medicine”, and ignoring its long medicinal history. “The government and the MCA are treating a long-established herbal extract as if it were just another new synthetic chemical, and are thus not making an informed scientific judgement,” the report said. However, it welcomed the fact that the MCA very recently agreed to consider modifying its position on cannabis and its derivatives.The committee also recommended that while it does not wish to encourage cannabis use by the wider population, it was “undesirable” for therapeutic cannabis users to be prosecuted. It said the fact that the law does not distinguish between recreational and therapeutic uses of the drug “underlines the need to legalise cannabis preparations for therapeutic use,” as swiftly as possible.Responding to the report, the Home Office said, “If clinical trials into cannabis are successful and lead to a medical preparation which is approved by the Medicines Control Agency, the government has made it clear that it would be willing to amend the Misuse of Drugs Regulations to allow the prescribing of such a medicine.” In November 1998, the Science and Technology Committee published a report suggesting that doctors should be permitted to prescribe cannabis. In an unusual move, the government rejected the House of Lords’ recommendation opening it to accusations of inflexibility in refusing to reconsider drug legislation for the benefit of chronically ill people.
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Comment #1 posted by superstoner on March 22, 2001 at 12:38:22 PT:
so what
i still ask the question whats so bad about gettin high... it makes your happy. ... isnt that what people wanna be ? so what are these "toxic" effects they meantion? Also .. seems weird how a industry like pharmicuals is allowed to produce drugs like oxycotton that when crushed and snorted is more dangrouse than herion.... big wtf on that one i still cant belive that people are so closed minded to the idead that responsible people can use cannabis with out major effect to their life.peace outsuperstoner
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