can drugs help you?

[xmrs_harmanx]

Ages ago on the news, i think it was the north east news, there was a report on a woman who was baking with drugs. She was refusing to go to prison because she said that the drugs helped her friends and she. I think they helped her because she had arthritis or something. I know drugs have some kind of affect on you but if you took them in small doses, i.e cannabis, could they help cure diseases such as dimensia, arthritis or meningitis?

[WaldoMcFroog]

Cannabis is often used by sufferers of diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis to control their pain but it is only managing the symptoms, not a cure for the condition itself. Many such people claim that cannabis has been the only effective treatment for their conditions.

Currently, the law does not recognise the use of cannabis for medical use.

This is a little odd because, for example, heroin can be used for medical purposes despite being a restricted substance. Admittedly, heroin itself is rarely used, but other opiates are.

Until there is a decent Royal Commission, required to make wholesale changes, this situation is unlikely to change and people with a medical condition will continue to have to commit criminal acts in order to manage their pain.

Aren't we humane and sensible?

[jake-the-peg]

There are a lot of people especially with diseases such as Multiple Schlerosis who have found canabis very helpful medicinally. Really for pain control rather than actually curing.

The problem has been that due to the recreational history of cannabis it's been hard for drugs companies to get licenses to investigate it and they've been slow to get involved for other reasons.

More recently though a number of them have been looking at deriving useful medical drugs from cannabis. You can't just prescribe 'a joint' because a) there are a lot of toxic compounds in there too b) you have no idea exactly how strong a particular batch is c) people would sue you when they got lung cancer :c)

There's a page on current work here, they say possibly available in 3 years probably as a nasal spray

http://www.idmu.co.uk/gw060400.htm

[matt66]

cannabis may provide temporaray relief from the pain suffered by patients of MS or arthritis, but there is a strong body of evidence to sugest that long term use of cannabis could result in schizoprenia and dementia. Not to say that other pain killers do not have similarly drastic side effects but it has to be considered.

[jake-the-peg]

That's not really fair Waldo

GW pharmacuticals have a license for cannabis research here:
http://www.gwpharm.com/research_cri.asp

and with the reclassification of cannabis recently no MS sufferer is ever going to get charged with possession of cannabis

[WaldoMcFroog]

I did say they would be made to commit a criminal act, not they'd be prosecuted for it, so I agree with you that it's unlikely to happen. If Mark Thomas can film a MS sufferer sparking a joint in front of the then home secretary (and no, it wasn't Blunkett; it was Straw, so he did see) and not getting arrested, it's going to be unlikely, but they are still committing criminal acts.

Thanks for the GW link though. Does a licence to do research mean that cannabis is legalised for medical treatment though - I didn't think it did..?

[jake-the-peg]

No they have a research license they'll have to show it's safe and effective before it's legalised for use just like any other drug.

It's just such a shame that drugs can be rejected because of a bad name.

Thalidomide is a great example it has phenominal properties in treating leasions and leprosy not to mention in chemotherapy and yet for years could not be prescribed even for men!

[kazza12345]

thalidomide is quite widely prescribed at the moment in auto immune diseases such as bechets and haemotalogical diseases such as myeloma

[kazza12345]

also, nabilone (a cannabinoid) is being used in chemotherapy

[noxlumos]

I wish I'd realised you could "refuse to go to prison" that would have been very handy.Lol
The use of cannabis etc is fairly prevalent as pain relief unofficially and I agree with you that there should be no reason why it should not be used if people are aware of the possible contra-indications and what the effects of it's use might be and are prepared to take the risks.Whose life is it anyway? I don't think it should be down to anyone else to deny people pain relief that works for them as long as those people are aware of all the facts.