MAPS: BMJ : Dutch Trial for MS sufferers.

[Peter Webster <vignes@xxxxxxxxx>]

BMJ 2002;324:504 ( 2 March )

News roundup

Netherlands to run trials of marijuana in patients with multiple sclerosis

Tony Sheldon Utrecht

The Dutch government has announced a small scale cross over trial into the
effect of three sorts of medical marijuana, plus a placebo, on 16 patients
with multiple sclerosis.

Two foundations in Rotterdam, the Institute for Medical Marijuana and
Maripharm, have been contracted by the government to produce the drug to a
standard quality and provide metal pipes for inhalation.

A Bureau for Medical Cannabis, set up by the ministry and the Amsterdam?s
Free University medical centre, will run the year?s trial.

The bureau also intends to make medicinal cannabis available through
pharmacists on prescription by spring 2003. The Dutch cabinet recently
agreed to change the law to permit this.

Four trials of cannabis are taking place in the United Kingdom. The
cannabis in multiple sclerosis (CAMS) study, which is sponsored by the
Medical Research Council, started at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, last
year and aims to take in 660 participants in 40 centres.

Three smaller phase II trials?in Guernsey, Oxford, and Norfolk?have been
under way since autumn 2000, examining a sublingual spray developed from
plants grown by G W Pharmaceuticals in Kent. The researchers expect to
extend these trials to 2000 patients over two years and to enrol not only
people with multiple sclerosis but also patients with various chronic pain
syndromes, such as neuralgia and lower back pain.


-----------------
MAPS-Forum@xxxxxxxx, a member service of the Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies (see www.maps.org/memsub.html).
To [un]subscribe, email the message text,
[un]subscribe maps-forum youraddress to majordomo@xxxxxxxx
List archives: www.cerebral.org/Maps
Guidelines for authors: www.maps.org/guidelines.txt
MAPS Forum is supported by a generous grant from the Promind Foundation.