Fwd: [TMIC] U.K. Prescribes Marijuana Spray

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Scotland, U.K. Hospitals To Prescribe Medical Marijuana Spray In PatientsTrialsGlasgow, Scotland: Doctors in Scotland's largest hospital and eightothers around Britain will begin offering seriously ill patients medicalmarijuana.Patients suffering from multiple sclerosis and other illnesses associatedwith chronic pain will be able to receive the non-synthetic medicinalmarijuana extracts for the first time ever as part of an expansive PhaseIII trial of the drug by the London-based company, GW Pharmaceuticals. Approximately 1,000 patients are expected to participate in the trial,according to a news report in The Scotsman newspaper.Patients in the trial will not smoke cannabis, but will insteadadminister the extracts sublingually. Patients will also have the optionto use the synthesized oral pill form of the drug known as Dronabinol.In previous Phase II trials performed by GW, nearly 80 percent ofpatients sustained "clinically significant therapeutic benefit" frommedicinal cannabis extracts - including relief from pain, bladder-relatedsymptoms and tremor, as well as a 50 percent average reduction in theiruse of opiates.Speaking in May at the Second National Clinical Conference on CannabisTherapeutics, GW Pharmaceuticals President Geoffrey Guy speculated thatcannabis-based medicines could receive British regulatory approval by asearly as fall 2003.For more information, please contact either Armentano or Stroup of NORML at . Additional information on GWPharmaceuticals clinical patient trials is available at:http://www.gwpharm.com .

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