A report from one of Britain’s leading experts on the benefits on medical marijuana has urged the British government to relax the laws regarding medicinal use of the drug.
Val Curran, professor of Psychopharmacology at University College London, along with co-author Frank Warburton, says British patients are “suffering unnecessarily” with medicinal marijuana not being made available to them.
The report adds patients with conditions such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord damage, epilepsy, chronic neuropathic pain, chronic pain following shingles, the side effects of chemotherapy for cancer, and those with a spate of other ailments are being denied effective treatment.
Curran said: “Patients are suffering unnecessarily and others in great pain are travelling abroad to find the cannabis they need to ease their symptoms. All this could change by moving cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2, thus recognising the medicinal value of the drug. Such a change would also free up research and lead to new medicines for chronic pain, and disease.”
Under UK medical regulation, if a drug is in Schedule 1, it is deemed that there are no medicinal benefits to it in spite of the mounting evidence of the possible treatments and pain-killing effects of cannabis. Even heroin is in Schedule 2.
By Sean Martin
Read the full story at ibtimes.co.uk
