This is a very contentious subject. Cannabis is a drug that is natural and is of a massive benefit to a lot of people with MS, but it is illegal. Doesn't make much sense when you bear in mind the 'Big Pharmas' are selling very expensive man made drugs that seem to have little, or no effect to some of the MS population. The cynic in me wonders how many shareholders in pharmaceutical companies are involved in various Governments and their decision making processes around the globe. Ignore me, it's late and I've been drinking Stella.
There is a UK based company called GW Pharmaceuticals who have developed a medicine called nabiximols. It is better known by its trade name - Sativex. Sativex is a cannabis based throat spray, albeit with all the. 'good stuff' taken out and since its release a year or so ago, the only media attention it has had is the fact that you cannot get your hands on the stuff. Here in the UK, our primary care trusts won't touch it. So people in the UK have massive difficulties getting access to a drug that has been manufactured in the same country, despite it has had all the effects you get from the 'street' version already taken out of it
You go into hospital with a sore finger and they'll pump you full of opiates, to stop your pain, yet you cannot have cannabis in any shape or form, despite its proven benefits. This is not a case of some 'stoner' banging on about 'legalising the weed', it is just general bewilderment that Sativex is such a difficult drug to get your hands on.
To me, it's a no brainer. Let us have access to drugs that help us.
Dan
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