Pubdate: Fri, 01 May 1998
Source: British Medical Journal (UK)
Contact:  http://www.bmj.com/
Author: John Warden, parliamentary correspondent

UK EXPERTS WILL SPEED UP WORK ON CANNABIS

Research into the clinical use of cannabinoids is to be put on to a new
basis in Britain with the formation of a committee of experts who will draw
up guidelines for good practice. The working party on the therapeutic uses
of cannabinoids is being set up by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of
Great Britain and will be headed by Sir William Asscher, a former chairman
of the government Committee on Safety of Medicines.

The aim is that the guidelines will encourage the Home Office to approve
research licences which are currently being delayed. The development was
reported by BMA witnesses to a House of Lords subcommittee inquiring into
the use of cannabis and its derivatives for medical and recreational
purposes and into whether any relaxation of the law is appropriate.

Last year the BMA report Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis concluded that
cannabis is unsuitable for medicinal use but that cannabinoid derivatives
should be considered. Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of the BMA's professional
resources and research group, and Professor Heather Ashton, consultant
writer for the BMA report, gave evidence to the Lords subcommittee last
week.

They reported a meeting last month with the chief medical officer at the
Department of Health to discuss further action in moving forward clinical
trials of cannabinoids. It was agreed that a new independent body to
conduct such trials was required. Dr Nathanson welcomed the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society's working party as a means of producing better
research and development of cannabinoids so that the least possible delay
occurs before clinical trials are started.

Concern had been expressed, she said, over Home Office delays in issuing
research licences, with about 14 applications pending. The new research
protocols might help the Home Office to compare licence applications with a
set of guidelines and decide which should be licensed.

In a written submission, the BMA said that individual cannabinoids have a
therapeutic potential in several medical conditions in which present drugs
are not fully adequate. The long term effects have not been studied, but
present evidence indicates that cannabinoids are remarkably safe. The
accumulation of scientific evidence has been hampered by regulations
restricting the use of cannabinoids to one clinical indication--as
antiemetics in chemotherapy for cancer.

The BMA wants a high priority given to carefully controlled trials of
cannabinoids in patients with chronic spastic disorders that have not
responded to other drugs. In the meantime there was a case for the
extension of the indications for nabilone and ê-9-tetrahydrocannabinol for
use in chronic spastic disorders unresponsive to standard drugs.