BRITISH scientists have demonstrated for the
first time that an active component of
cannabis can dramatically relieve some of the
most disabling symptoms of multiple
sclerosis.

The Electronic Herald

-- spider (spider@usa.net), March 02, 2000

Answers

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/2-3-19100-23-46-10.html

Scientists prove cannabis helps MS sufferers

ALAN MacDERMID

BRITISH scientists have demonstrated for the first time that an active component of cannabis can dramatically relieve some of the most disabling symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Their discovery provides the first scientific support for the anecdotal evidence of sufferers who have defied the law to suppress their symptoms with marijuana.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, identifies the mechanism through which the cannabinoid reduces spasticity in mice with an animal version of MS.

Multiple sclerosis is the result of damage to the myelin sheath surrounding the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Its prevalence in Scotland - one in 500 - is the world's highest.

The discovery is a major milestone for Professor Roger Pertwee, of Aberdeen University, who helped to design the study and analyse the results.

He has been researching the pharmacological properties of cannabis for more than 30 years and has finally seen its therapeutic potential officially acknowledged with the launch of a Medical Research Council trial on humans at the end of last year.

He said last night that two interesting things had emerged from the study with mice that might point to the type of human therapies which will eventually emerge.

One is that a drug specific to one of the body's two cannabinoid receptors might be therapeutic, without causing the "high" associated with recreational marijuana - an unwelcome side effect for MS patients.

"It might be fun to start with, but if you've got your life to live, work to do, your car to drive, you can't go about like that all the time," he said.

The other is that chemically blocking the action of the receptors not only reduced the effect of the cannabinoids, but made the symptoms worse. This suggests that a version of cannabinoid produced naturally in the body was increased in response to MS, to reverse the symptoms.

"This means that as well as a drug which augmented this, we might be able to produce something which simply delayed its uptake - in other words, kept it in active circulation. It would be analogous to the way drugs like Prozac work against depression by delaying the uptake of serotonin."

The researchers, led by Dr David Baker at the Institute of Neurology in London, used mice given an animal equivalent of MS which produces the same disease pattern and symptoms seen in humans - including spasticity, or muscle rigidity, and severe tremors which can have a devastating effect on the sufferer's quality of life.

The mice were injected with the cannabinoid THC as well as three synthetic compounds. One proved the most effective against tremors, halting uncontrolled limb movements in as little as one minute.

"The effect was really startling.

It was a question of now you see the tremor, now you don't," said Dr Baker.

Co-author Dr Lorna Layward, from the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said it would probably be several years before the current research could be translated into pharmaceutical products.

However, Professor Pertwee predicted it would not be long before compounds specific to the the side-effect free receptor, CB2, were given to man.

MS sufferer Lezley Gibson, 35, from Alston, Cumbria, who runs a patient group called Therapeutic Help from Cannabis, said: "Cannabis helps MS sufferers, without a shadow of a doubt. I've had MS for 15 years and when I was first diagnosed I was completely paralysed down one side. The doctor said that within five years I would be in a wheelchair and incontinent. For the first three years, before I took cannabis, the attacks were very severe and lasted a long time. I lost my sight, the power of speech, and the use of various limbs. Cannabis had a dramatic effect on me, and I'm not prepared not to use it. I still get ill but I"m not wheelchair bound and living a relatively normal life. It stops me being a disabled person. I'm sure if I wasn't taking it the prognosis I was given would come true."

Ms Gibson smokes between three and five reefers a day, despite the fact that she has been prosecuted twice for possession.

She elected to be tried before a judge and jury over the latest charge, brought after eight grams of cannabis were found at her home in August.

Ms Gibson will be pleading not guilty at Carlisle Crown Court on March 20 in what promises to be a high profile test case.

-- Reefer madness (@ .), March 02, 2000.

Fellow MS trippers. Turn on at my pad this Friday, BYOP. Music by The Grateful Dead. No Avonex-heads.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), March 02, 2000.

So what -- let them suffer and die -- can't risk having their heads messed up with the evil weed. (Note: sarcasm.)

-- A (A@AisA.com), March 02, 2000.