Pubdate: Thu, 4 Nov 2010
Source: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2010 New Zealand Press Association
Contact:  http://www.odt.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/925
Cited: New Zealand NORML http://www.norml.org.nz/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?251 (Cannabis - New Zealand)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/NORML (NORML)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?323 (GW Pharmaceuticals)

MEDICINAL CANNABIS WORKS, BUT COSTLY: NORML

New Zealand patients suffering pain which cannot be managed with 
conventional pain-killers have had success with medicinal cannabis - 
but found it was much more costly than supplies of illicit cannabis, 
a lobbyist for the legalisation of cannabis says.

"They would rather be smoking cannabis than taking the commercial 
drug: they find the cannabis more effective, cheaper, and more 
pleasant to take," NORML spokesman Chris Fowlie told NZPA.

"But growing their own or buying it illegally brings significant risks."

A consent notice to distribute cannabis extracts in New Zealand as a 
branded drug, Sativex, has been gazetted, the British drug 
manufacturer, GW Pharmaceuticals, said today.

It is planning to appoint a commercial partner in New Zealand to 
distribute the drug, a spray administered under the tongue.

Its Sativex treatment - approved for the relief of spasticity in 
multiple sclerosis (MS) patients - contains two active ingredients, 
THC and CBD, from whole plant extracts from the cannabis sativa plant.

A common symptom in the degenerative nerve disease, spasticity - 
continuous or repeatedly muscle contractions - can interfere with 
movements, speech, and walking and may include severe, painful, and 
uncontrollable muscle spasms.

Medsafe has spent over two years considering whether to allow the 
marketing and sale of the cannabis spray as the Government has come 
under increasing pressure from some patients and scientists to 
legalise cannabis use to alleviate chronic pain for accident victims, 
and some sufferers of multiple sclerosis and cancer.

Mr Fowlie said about five people with neuropathic pain were already 
using the drug, with ministerial approval.

"Getting approval is one thing, but paying for it is another," he 
said. The initial legal user, who lived near Nelson, had his Sativex 
funded by ACC for back pain, but other patients had said paying for 
the drug was more expensive than buying illicit cannabis.

"They all believe Sativex works," he said.

It was cheaper than traditional pharmaceuticals, which sometimes did 
not adequately suppress pain, and it had an instant effect which made 
it easier to monitor the dosages.

Some patients also did not like the alcohol base of the spray: 
several users had suffered alcohol "burns" in their mouth and they 
had to find a new spot to spray up to 20 times a day.

Mr Fowlie said patients were now waiting for drug funding agency 
Pharmac to consider whether it would subsidise the drug, which he 
said cost about $300 for a small bottle that lasted patients between 
a week and a month, depending on their dosage.

A spokesman for Pharmac said it had not received any funding 
application, and it had not paid for any of the drug used under 
ministerial approval.

In its application to Medsafe, GW Pharmaceuticals said that in 
therapeutic doses, Sativex may produce side-effects "interpreted as a 
euphoria or cannabis-like high". 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake