Doctors treat MS sufferers with cannabis

SCOTTISH doctors have started prescribing cannabis on the NHS before it is officially licensed in a bid to relieve the pain of multiple sclerosis sufferers.

Medics, apparently frustrated by years of trials of medicinal cannabis, have decided to wait no longer and are legally obtaining the drug Sativex direct from the manufacturer.

Doctors are allowed to prescribe unlicensed drugs in the UK if they think it is in the best interest of their patient, but they are liable for any unforeseen consequences.

Sativex, which costs the NHS around £1,825 a year per patient, contains two purified forms of cannabis and is considered highly effective at controlling the pain and spasms associated with MS. It contains an extra ingredient which prevents the patient getting a 'high'.

Many cancer and MS sufferers resort to cannabis in its illegal form as pain relief and several have been prosecuted, including the late Biz Ivol, from Orkney, who made cannabis chocolates and posted them to fellow sufferers.

Trials of Sativex have been ongoing for at least four years and it will be later this year before the makers submit an application for UK licensing.

But prescription figures from the Information and Statistics Division of the Scottish Government's health department indicate that around a dozen patients are already being supplied with the drug by their doctors.

The true number of Scots receiving the drug is probably higher because those figures do not include prescriptions requested by hospital consultants.

Although cannabis is an illegal drug, the company which makes Sativex, GW Pharmaceuticals, based in Wiltshire, is allowed to do so under a special licence from the Home Office. This licence also allows doctors to prescribe it and patients to take it without breaking the law.

The treatment, which is taken as a spray under the tongue, contains cannabis as the main active ingredient and is treated to ensure patients do not experience a high. Cannabis blocks receptors in the brain that cause a patient to feel pain or experience muscle spasms, two symptoms of MS.

Sativex has already been approved as a prescription medicine in Canada.

A spokesman for GW Pharmaceuticals said: "We are working very hard to finish clinical trials, which are necessary to get a full licence. The good news for patients is that the mechanism does exist that allows them to have access to this medicine. The final decision on whether to prescribe it to a patient is a matter for individual health boards."

One patient who has benefited from the drug is MS sufferer Joyce Fisher, from Dollar, Clackmannanshire. The 45-year-old former library assistant has had the condition for 15 years and is now confined to a wheelchair. Her GP agreed to prescribe Sativex after Fisher heard about the drug last year, and she took it for three months. However, she says her local health board, NHS Forth Valley, will no longer fund her treatment.

"Sativex eased the pain within the first two days and it also relieved the muscle spasms. It relaxed my body and allowed me to stand up and exercise."

Patients have long campaigned for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Scotland's best-known campaigner was MS sufferer Biz Ivol, from Orkney, who died in 2004 after falling ill with a chest infection and refusing any further medication.

Ivol was admonished at Kirkwall Sheriff Court in 1997 after she admitted growing 27 cannabis plants to relieve her pain. She produced cannabis chocolate bars, "cannachoc", for fellow sufferers.

Last night Linda Hendry, spokeswoman for the Legalise Cannabis Campaign Scotland and a former acquaintance of Ivol, said Sativex could have saved Ivol's life.

Treatments

Marijuana has some use in treating a variety of ailments.

It has been used to 'numb' the central nervous system – helping to reduce any associated muscle spasms with Alzheimer's disease, and as a treatment for sufferers of obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's.

Cannabinoids found within marijuana can relieve pain and stimulate appetite, which can aid cancer and HIV patients.