Pubdate: Fri, 03 Jun 2005
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/108
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

CANNABIS 'CAN EASE MENTAL ILLNESS'

Severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bi-polar depression could 
be eased with cannabis, according to new research.

While some experts have warned about the long-term mental damage that 
cannabis smokers risk, scientists at Newcastle University believe in 
regulated doses it can ease manic attacks.

Professor Heather Ashton, who led the study by the department of 
psychiatry, stressed the medicinal use of cannabis was quite separate from 
heavy, recreational use.

She said: "There are certain things in cannabis which can be helpful in 
certain forms of mental disease. People who take it for relief of these 
symptoms do not need the heavy doses that recreational users take."

She did not advocate smoking the drug, but said there were certain 
chemicals known as cannabinoids in it which can be synthesised into a spray 
and administered under the tongue.

In certain doses, it can have a sedative, anti-psychotic or anti-depressive 
effect, she said. One ingredient THC makes users feel "high", while 
another, known as CBD, can have a calming effect.

Prof Ashton, a psycho-pharmacologist, wanted to study the effect of a 
mixture of those two specific chemicals.

Prof Ashton said current anti-psychotic drugs, often a mixture of lithium, 
was not satisfactory as they can render patients emotionally "flat".

"We thought it might be useful to patients to try, as an add-on not as a 
single drug, a known mixture of certain cannabinoids."

The department was now looking for funding to begin a trial, which could be 
done in collaboration with North American scientists, who have access to 
the two cannabinoids as they have already been licensed in Canada.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom