A newsletter about cannabis and cannabinoids as medicine
A Canadian who uses marijuana to control multiple sclerosis symptoms was allowed to grow his own cannabis by a Calgary judge on 11 December.
Seven out of 10 patients involved in a research project looking at the pain relieving properties of cannabis at the Jame Paget Hospital in Norfolk (UK) have been helped by cannabis, a doctor said on 8 December. The trial had been approved in April 2000.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has approved a program that will allow a northern California county to give away government-grown marijuana to 60 AIDS patients in a study to assess the health benefits of cannabis.
Patients suffering chronic pain or debilitating or terminal illnesses would be allowed to use cannabis under a drug law reform program being considered in New South Wales (NSW).
New study findings show that 85% (23/27) of HIV/AIDS patients who added dronabinol (THC), the most active ingredient of the cannabis plant, to their current antiretroviral therapy had a 50% improvement in symptoms of nausea and vomiting. These results were presented on 23 October at the Fifth Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection in Glasgow (Scotland).
Many European governments are shifting from harsh soft-drug penalties towards a more tolerant approach to drugs such as cannabis.
At a first informal meeting of the IACM in Wolfsburg on 16 September the Board of Directors presented principles of the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine. It is intended to install an advisory board and a patients representative.
The federal government can't prosecute doctors who recommend marijuana as a medical treatment for patients, a federal judge ruled on 7 September in California.
Physicians at the San Francisco and San Diego campuses of the University of California announced on 29 August that they will set up a scientific research centre to study the medical uses and effects of marijuana. The new Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, which is to be established in San Diego, will start off with $3 million in state money for its first year, the doctors said.
On 14 August the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied the federal government's request for a temporary emergency order to keep the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative from dispensing marijuana as medicine. On 16 August the Federal Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to intervene in this case.
The Board of Directors of the IACM would like to invite those interested in the medical use of cannabis and the cannabinoids to participate in a first informal meeting of the IACM in Wolfsburg/Germany.
The first U.S. study using marijuana for people with HIV has found that smoking the plant does not disrupt the effect of antiretroviral drugs that keep the virus in check.
On 28 June the petition committee of the Bundestag (German Parliament), consisting of 29 members of the parliament, supported the petition of the Self-Help Group Cannabis as Medicine in Berlin and of the ACM to allow a medical use of natural cannabis products and single cannabinoids.
A team of researchers of the University of California at Los Angeles reported that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can promote tumour growth in animal tests by impairing the immune system. This is the first time that its possible tumour-promoting activity has been reported.
A bill calling for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use was coming before Parliament for its second reading on 8 June. The government is expected to object to it.
A plan by San Mateo County (California) health officials to give marijuana to AIDS patients as part of a controlled study has won tentative approval from federal regulators. San Mateo County officials said they see no substantial hurdles to beginning one of the nation's few studies of the effects of medical marijuana.
At the Medical School of Hanover another study on the efficacy of THC in Tourette's syndrome has started at the end of April under the guidance of Dr. Kirsten Mueller-Vahl. Until now 15 patients have been included in the study.
The Hawaii Senate passed a bill on 24 April that will allow the medical use of Cannabis by patients with certain severe or life-threatening illnesses. The Hawaiian House of Representatives has already approved the measure, and Gov. Ben Cayetano has said he will sign the law.
A clinical trial of a cannabis-based medicine has been given the go-ahead by the Medicines Control Agency (MCA), it was disclosed on 14 April. Junior Health Minister Gisela Stuart said the trial would look at the use of the drug to treat multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders.
The Police Foundation, influential police charity, released the findings of a two-year study on 28 March, concluding that marijuana should be "depenalized"-- removing the risk of prison sentences except for people suspected of dealing in the drug. Users could still be fined or cautioned.
On 11 March the International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM) was founded in Cologne. It is a scientific society initiated by members of the Association for Cannabis as Medicine (ACM), an organisation in the German speech area. It is the aim of the society to encourage conditions, that allow or facilitate ill persons to use cannabis products therapeutically, through promotion of research, distribution of information, formulation of statements etc.
Delta-9-tetrahydrocannbinol (THC), the major active component of the cannabis plant, and a synthetic cannabinoid induced a remarkable regression of a usually fatal type of brain tumour when tested on laboratory rats, Spanish researchers said on 28 February in the journal Nature Medicine.
On 8 February a decision of the Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) of 20 January was published, saying that the complaints of eight persons, suffering from severe diseases (multiple sclerosis, HIV, hepatitis C, epilepsy etc.) will not be accepted on formal grounds. With their complaints of 14 December the patients wanted to achieve the right to use cannabis medicinally to alleviate their complaints.
Saying people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes have to get the drug from somewhere, a judge has granted a conditional discharge to a man caught transporting cannabis to the Vancouver Compassion Club.
Albany College of Pharmacy researcher Audra Stinchcomb was awarded a $361,000 three-year grant on 21 January by the American Cancer Society to study whether cannabinoids can be absorbed effectively through the skin.
For the first time a Spanish court has accepted cannabis as a medicine. A man from Austria who had been arrested in July on the airport of Barcelona with two kilograms of hashish has been acquitted by judge Araceli Aiguaviva.