Pubdate: Sun, 09 Nov 2003
Source: Sunday Herald, The (UK)
Copyright: 2003 Sunday Herald
Contact:  http://www.sundayherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/873
Author: Kath Gourlay
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

NUCLEAR FIRM GETS FIRST PATENT FOR CANNABIS INHALER

The former commercial arm of the United Kingdom Energy Authority has 
developed a cannabis inhaler at the same plant which experimented with 
scientists inhaling plutonium.

AEA Technology is the first to develop a system of cannabis delivery in 
expectation of the legal lid being lifted on the use of the drug for 
medicinal purposes. The company has filed a patent for an aerosol which 
would vaporise cannabis, allowing it to be inhaled as part of medical 
treatment for various illnesses.

The medical use of cannabis looks more likely to be legalised after MPs 
voted to downgrade the drug from class B to class C as of January, ranking 
it alongside body-building steroids and some anti-depressants.

The applicant address listed on the patent is 329 Harwell, Didcot, 
Oxfordshire: the same premises which housed the biomedical research labs 
where two human volunteers inhaled a form of plutonium through an aerosol.

AEA Technology, which claims to operate separately from its Atomic Energy 
Authority parent company, says it knows nothing of any connection between 
the two areas of research, or indeed of the plutonium experiments.

The company made a conscious decision to exit nuclear activities, said 
press officer Terry Collinson, who described its present status as "a rail 
and environment business".

He added: "However, the intellectual property - such as registered designs 
and trademarks - is still potentially valuable, so the company is there to 
protect these.

"Sometimes ideas have been patentable, and out of these we've selected 
certain ones which we felt could be of future benefit. The cannabis aerosol 
was one of these. Though I can't say whether it came about because a change 
in legislation was anticipated."

He added: "We can't find any information on the plutonium experiments and 
people who might know have all moved on."

The results of the European-Union-funded plutonium study are currently in 
the depths of the EU's radiation protection unit.

One of those taking part in tests in the late 1990s, retired nuclear 
physicist Eric Voice, told the Sunday Herald he had no qualms about 
participating. Voice, a former Dounreay employee who still lives in 
Caithness, said: "It is the duty of people involved in the nuclear industry 
to ensure that no workers have a body burden of plutonium greater than 
accepted safety limits. That's what these trials were all about."

Half a century ago Voice was one of the founder members of the Campaign for 
Nuclear Disarmament movement with Bertrand Russell, yet he remains 
convinced nuclear power is our only hope in the fight against global warming.

Now in his 80s, (still working as a consultant nuclear physicist) he says 
he realised early on that protests from outside achieved very little, and 
felt more influence could be made from within the industry.

He has recently finished editing the massive Scope-Radtest report 
commissioned by the Royal Society on the findings from 2600 nuclear weapons 
test explosions. The Radtest findings have horrified him, yet he has 
allowed his body to be used in medical experiments to discover how humans 
metabolise and excrete plutonium. He describes himself as "the most 
radioactive man on the planet".

"The truth about plutonium is that it's a well known chemical element and 
there is nothing sinister about it," he said.

Voice's neighbours became quite used to the regular visits of an armoured 
van to pick up his bodily waste. "When I arrived at people's houses with a 
carrier bag of bottles they assumed I'd brought them a gift," he said. 
"When I explained that I couldn't use their facilities their expressions 
were extremely comical."

The question is: what will happen to his body, eventually? The local 
churchyard is surely not an option. "It has all been taken care of," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager