Pensioners Demand Medical Marijuana

There is a medical cannabis revolution going on throughout the Western world, notably in the United States – and it is being lead by old age pensioners (see video).

In Britain the Medical Cannabis Revolt is going on in the heartland of Middle England, spread by word of mouth at places like the local Conservative Club and the Women’s Institute.

One of the huge advantages of medical cannabis over many pharmaceutical drugs is that apart from a pleasurable ‘high’ (for most people), there are no major side effects, and it is not possible to die from an over dose (unlike paracetamol available on any high street).

Of course the main advantage is that cannabis actually works, especially for MS and certain types of chronic pain, when other drugs do not, or have serious life threatening side effects. Deaths in Britain from prescription drugs have doubled in the past decade.

In the US where there is no free national health service and all drugs have to be paid for in full, or you go without, medical cannabis has a huge advantage for those on low incomes because it is relatively easy to grow your own (except for the misguided prohibitionist laws against growing a herb).

If it were not for the cannabis prohibition laws we would already have pharmaceutical quality cannabis available which would enable doctors to prescribe a measured amount with an exact strength.

However there is some hope in this direction. Britain leads the world in the development of pharmaceutical quality medical cannabis thanks to the establishment of GW Pharmaceuticals by Tony Blair’s government. The company, which is listed on the stock exchange, was given a special Home Office licence to grow cannabis for research in 1998. Since then human trials using Sativex (a cannabis spray preparation) have been carried out with good results, especially for MS sufferers.

Sativex is a whole plant extract containing a fixed roughly 1:1 combination of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinoi (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Sativex is in development for both spasticity and neuropathic pain associated with MS, opioid-refractory cancer pain and peripheral neuropathic pain. It is delivered as an oral-mucocal spray and each 100ul spray contains 2.7mg of THC and 2.5mg of CBD.

Sativex is approved for sale in Canada under the Notice of Compliance with Conditions (NOC/c) policy for the relief of MS neuropathic pain and as adjunctive analgesic treatment in adults with advanced cancer who are experiencing moderate to severe pain despite opioid therapy. It is also currently available in the UK and certain other countries on a named-patient or on a similar exceptional basis (eg in Spain, the autonomous Catalonia region permits compassionate use).

GW Pharmaceuticals is due to get the final go ahead from the government to market Sativex some time this year (supposedly March/April), but this has already been delayed once before.

Gordon Brown is said to be terrified by opinion in Middle England. In that case he had better make sure GW Pharmaceuticals gets the official go ahead before the General Election. The Labour Party should get the credit which it deserves in this case.

And those who wish or need to grow their own pure herbal cannabis (which is safer than paracetamol), should be allowed to do so without being made criminals.