MONTREAL - After two years of consultation, Health Canada has released a draft of the new Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations. Following a 75-day period of review and comment, the final version will be published next spring, to come into effect in March 2014. What do these new regulations mean? The new regulations are a significant departure from the old ones. Gone are the lengthy delays for patients to obtain licenses to possess cannabis for medical purposes. Gone is the reliance on a single cultivation company and strain. Gone are the arbitrary categories of diseases and symptoms that governed whether a patient needed the support of one doctor or more. Gone is the ability for patients to grow their own cannabis or to designate someone else to grow for them. Gone is the reliance on only physicians to authorize cannabis. [continues 732 words]
Background: Chronic neuropathic pain affects 1%-2% of the adult population and is often refractory to standard pharmacologic treatment. Patients with chronic pain have reported using smoked cannabis to relieve pain, improve sleep and improve mood. Methods: Adults with post-traumatic or postsurgical neuropathic pain were randomly assigned to receive cannabis at four potencies (0%, 2.5%, 6% and 9.4% tetrahydrocannabinol) over four 14-day periods in a crossover trial. Participants inhaled a single 25-mg dose through a pipe three times daily for the first five days in each cycle, followed by a nine-day washout period. Daily average pain intensity was measured using an 11-point numeric rating scale. We recorded effects on mood, sleep and quality of life, as well as adverse events. [continues 258 words]
Crude preparations of herbal cannabis have been used for thousands of years to treat many symptoms, including pain, spasms, and nausea.1 Preparations historically included extracts of roots, leaves, and flowering heads but were not commercially standardized or characterized. Modern pharmacology has identified the principal psychoactive ingredient of cannabis as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol; specific cannabinoid receptors have been identified in the central and peripheral nervous system as well as in immune cells, endothelial tissue, and other visceral organs.2 Animal studies have confirmed that many of the effects of cannabis in humanbeings have solid neurophysiologic bases, particularly with respect to pain control.3 The cannabinoid system is, therefore, a major target for drug development.4 [continues 895 words]
