Off topic: Marijuana spray approved for MS patients in Canada

April 20, 2005

Marijuana spray approved for MS patients

Don on and Elaine O'Connor

The Province; with a file from CanWest News Service

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Canada yesterday become the first country to legalize a medicinal

spray form of marijuana, to treat pain in the country's 25,000

multiple-sclerosis sufferers.

Health Canada said the pain of MS patients was not met by current

prescription and over-the-counter medicines, so approval of the new

marijuana drug was expedited.

The spray Sativex contains THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

It is to be taken every four hours in a spritz into the mouth, five

times a day.

Sativex will be available by prescription in a 50-dose bottle at the

end of June. Its retail price has yet to be established.

Mark on of the British manufacturer GW Pharmaceuticals

admitted the new weed spray won't win any flavour contests.

It is " a bit like a breath freshener " and tastes like a " rather

bitter Guinness " beer, he said.

He said patients won't get the pleasant buzz people receive from

smoking a joint, adding the drug numbs pains in the nervous system

without numbing a patient's brain.

" It's absolutely not necessary to become intoxicated in order to get

pain relief, " he said.

But Philippe Lucas, founder and director of Canadians for Safe

Access, said overdosing could create a buzz.

Lucas, a legal medicinal-marijuana user, supported the availability

of the spray for chronic-pain treatment.

But he said Sativex would be so closely controlled -- patients need

to see a doctor before refilling a bottle, and bottles would be

shipped on demand and not kept in stock -- that they may find it not

worth the hassle.

" Availability is going to be very restricted. So for people

suffering from MS and neuropathy, it may actually be prohibitive to

have that much to go through. "

Article from the Vancouver, BC newspaper The Province 20 April 2005

Recommended Posts