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.Pharmaceutical company has found an expensive way to get sick people on pot.

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Im2Sexy4MyPants
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« on: April 26, 2011, 04:17:36 am »

The man who secretly (and legally) grows 20 tonnes of cannabis a year

Justin Gover, boss of GW Pharmaceuticals, explains how a drug called Sativex can ease the pain of multiple sclerosis sufferers – if the NHS can afford to buy it




Justin Gover: 'It’s not just street cannabis put into a bottle… we had to meet very strict standards.' Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer
Britain's only legal dope dealer looks quite ordinary. Bespectacled and wearing a dark grey suit, GW Pharmaceuticals' boss Justin Gover bears a closer resemblance to a City banker than someone who grows 20 tonnes of cannabis every year.

It is used to produce a multiple sclerosis (MS) drug, the world's first cannabis-based medicine, which is on the market in the UK, Spain, Canada and New Zealand. Called Sativex, it was the subject of a £20.7m international distribution deal last week with Swiss multinational Novartis – a tie-up with the potential to transform GW Pharmaceuticals' scale and sending its shares surging 15%.

Gover insists that Sativex – "medical marijuana" – does not get users high: "It's not just street cannabis put into a bottle." It is made from two cannabinoid substances found in the plant, THC and CBD. THC produces a high, but CBD counteracts it, and because Sativex is an oral spray the drug is absorbed more slowly than if it was smoked.

He is keen to dispel another myth: "We don't just plant seeds of cannabis. To get regulatory approval, we had to meet very strict standards. We had to know every vial of Sativex is identical."

The two strains of cannabis are each cloned and grown for eight weeks in a computer-controlled environment: "We end up with biological material that is entirely uniform."

Battling against scepticism in the Square Mile, Salisbury-based GW Pharmaceuticals has ploughed a lonely furrow as a listed company developing cannabis-based drugs since its flotation in 2001. The biotech firm keeps the location of its two cannabis fields secret; they are somewhere in southern England under 24-hour surveillance. Each plant is registered and genetically fingerprinted so it can be traced if stolen. GW needs special licences from the Home Office for sites, production, storage and exports, and the drug is transported in high-security vans to hospitals where it is put in a safe with opiates such as morphine.

For hundreds of thousands of MS patients with spasticity (muscle stiffness), Sativex promises pain relief where other drugs have failed. Gover says: "Picking up a teaspoon can be a problem and painful for people with MS. Sativex relieves the symptoms and improves sleep."

However, it is more expensive than other drugs and many health authorities are reluctant to pay for it. A 10ml bottle (equating to 90 sprays) costs £125, about £11 a day for the average user. Health authorities in the west and east Midlands and the south-west, including Cornwall and Devon, have come out against Sativex, saying it is not cost-effective.

This means that even though neurologists can make special applications to prescribe Sativex for MS patients with spasticity for whom other medicines do not work, applications are unlikely to be approved by primary care trusts (PCTs) in regions when money is tight. Other areas where patients have problems getting access to Sativex include East Anglia and Scotland. Nicola Russell, director of services at the MS Trust, says this is short-sighted: "If someone gets a pressure sore or falls over, the cost to the NHS is huge. The Trust believes that for a small number of people who have been assessed as appropriate by an MS specialist consultant, the NHS should be willing to fund Sativex."

Until GW won full approval for the drug in the UK last June, patients could be prescribed Sativex on a case-by-case basis – the "named patient programme" – and more than 90% of PCTs paid for it on the NHS. But public spending cuts have turned the availability of the spray, which is sold by GW's partner Bayer in the UK, into a postcode lottery.The MS Trust and patient groups are campaigning for PCTs to pay for Sativex. In contrast, in Spain the state healthcare system will pay for the drug. "The methods by which cost-effectiveness is evaluated are very poor," says John Zajicek, professor of clinical neuroscience at the University of Plymouth. "Where health budgets are being squeezed, any excuse not to make new medicines available is being used. I have written prescriptions [for Sativex], but have been told to stop writing them, even for people who are already on it. This is forcing people into using illegal sources again."

GW was founded in 1998 by Geoffrey Guy, a scientist with a long-held interest in plant medicine, and Brian Whittle, both entrepreneurs in the UK biotech industry. Unlike the opium poppy, which has spawned a whole generation of opiate medicines, cannabis had not been studied for its medical potential, despite its therapeutic history. "Cannabis has a long history of medical use which was then overtaken by the recreational effects," says Gover, who became managing director of GW in 1999. "In the early 1990s, it started to be understood how receptors in the brain – cannabinoid receptors – react."

GW was the first company in the world to seriously investigate its medical potential after its founders noticed that many MS sufferers resorted to smoking the illegal drug to alleviate their pain. The firm, which is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market, is also running late-stage trials of Sativex as a treatment for cancer pain, and working on other cannabis-based drugs for conditions such as breast and brain cancer, diabetes, epilepsy and even schizophrenia – which some studies have suggested is more prevalent among recreational cannabis users.

Gover, who holds an MBA from French business school Insead, turned down a career in banking to go into the risky biotech sector. He had previously worked with Guy at one of his other firms: "This is a bit of an irresistible company in terms of what they do. I'm very proud of my career decision."

Even though some clinical trials went badly, and it took more than a decade for the first cannabis drug to reach the UK market, this is quite normal for new medicines, he says and the GW team never lost faith in the treatment's potential.

"I don't think we ever doubted the efficacy because the data we were seeing were very consistent from the early days," says Gover. "There have been, without doubt, difficult times for GW, but it is hard to recall a drug development programme that hasn't had delays and setbacks in its history."

The company, whose investors include M&G, Gartmore, Aviva, Schroders and Blackrock, as well as many private shareholders, received a big boost from the deal with Novartis. The Swiss pharmaceuticals giant will sell Sativex in Australia, New Zealand, Asia (excluding China and Japan), the Middle East and Africa.

GW already has licensing agreements with Bayer for the UK and Canada (where Sativex has been on the market since 2005), Almirall for most of Europe and Otsuka for the US. It anticipates regulatory approval later this year in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/17/gw-pharmaceuticals-justin-gover-cannabis-sativex-multiple-sclerosis?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3788
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ssweetpea
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« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2011, 10:00:36 pm »

Did you know that pot smokers get holes in their lungs that show up on xrays?

They look totally different from lung damage suffered by tobacco smokers according to a nursing friend of mine.
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Lovelee
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« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2011, 09:18:08 am »

Did you know that pot smokers get holes in their lungs that show up on xrays?

They look totally different from lung damage suffered by tobacco smokers according to a nursing friend of mine.

Can u give me any sort of link to that SP - Ive had a wee look .. but not really finding anything.  Certainly not something Ive heard in my 40 odd years of MJ.
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2011, 09:38:22 pm »

Did you know that pot smokers get holes in their lungs that show up on xrays?

They look totally different from lung damage suffered by tobacco smokers according to a nursing friend of mine.


She may be referring to bullae-formation on the lungs which look like bubbles on a chest X-ray. This happens with other toxins when inhaled as well (including tobacco) but there is a recent buzz that it happens more quickly in regular MJ smokers. Not sure if it's the MJ or any additives a joint may contain.
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« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2011, 09:46:20 pm »

Is that like the lil cabbage like growths that signify emphysema?
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2011, 09:12:16 am »


Is that like the lil cabbage like growths that signify emphysema?

A very different pathology but still damage to lung tissues.

I don't know enough about MJ but is it always smoked? Would an MJ 'tea' give you an effect if you use the right amount?
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« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2011, 09:20:18 am »


Is that like the lil cabbage like growths that signify emphysema?

A very different pathology but still damage to lung tissues.

I don't know enough about MJ but is it always smoked? Would an MJ 'tea' give you an effect if you use the right amount?

Yep .. MJ tea is really good for settling the cramps women get with their period.  It seems to give differing relief depending on how its used.  Its very good for tummy things. Saw a doco a while ago .. a woman had MS, it was in early stages .. but she would get shakes in her eyes from it .. in the interview she started getting the shakes and her eyes were darting everywhere - she rolled a joint .. and as she exhaled the second toke her eyes stopped rolling and darting.  It was amazing to watch.  And of course theres the relief a joint gives to glaucoma sufferers in relaxing the eye muscles and relieving some pain involved.  However I know w woman who woke one morning with severe glaucoma .. we were all amazed it had come like that .. but that was the diagnosis .. and MJ didnt help her at all .. but that may be cos she was a regular smoker.
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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« Reply #7 on: April 28, 2011, 12:20:01 pm »


Thanks L'lee

As most people would smoke MJ to relax (or get stoned?) would MJ tea give them the same effect?
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« Reply #8 on: April 28, 2011, 12:30:36 pm »


Thanks L'lee

As most people would smoke MJ to relax (or get stoned?) would MJ tea give them the same effect?

HM, as we are all different, it affects all of us differently.  I cant say Ive smoked it to get stoned .. imo thats like drinking alcohol with the express purpose to get pissed.  I have over done it several times, inadvertently  Grin  There are some people who have had a smoke and feel nothing.  Different plants will also give different effects.  Some people experience high paranoia too.  Some give what is called a body stone, where the person just cant be bothered getting up and doing anything - though again ... that could be for some but not for others.  Personally, I enjoy having a smoke and doing something, doesnt matter if it is gardening or housework - so I hardly ever have a body stone that stops me doing anything.

Drinking a tea gives a whole different thing - u are affected by it, but not in the same way.  This is just my opinion - I dont know how it is for others.  Ive never looked on MJ as being illegal, I have never been paranoid, when carrying it or smoking it.  One has to understand fully the reason for its being made illegal to see it in its real light imo.
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2011, 03:31:11 pm »



I see.

If people could get a similar effect of ingesting it rather than smoking it then ingesting it would be a much safer option as it would be processed by the bowel, liver, and kidneys in a way which would made it safer. But obviously that would be at the expense of loss of the psychedelic effect.

Sometime ago, people advocated chewing tobacco or using a water-pipe (Shishah) to reduce its effects on the lungs but people ended up with mouth, throat, and gastrointestinal cancers instead.

I think it should be legalised in order to make it safer or at least consistent. This will obviously incresae its cost but would make it more accessible. I can't see this happening of course given the country's, and international, stance against tobacco.
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« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2011, 04:51:49 pm »

Yep .. thats right HM .. but I wouldnt call it psychedelic .. I spose it is .. but Ive never seen colours or anything silly like that.

I do get annoyed at those tokers who refuse to believe is not good for you - u are taking a foreign substance into the body ... it cant be good for anyone in the long term .. as with tobacco.
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2011, 08:50:22 pm »


........  Ive never looked on MJ as being illegal, .......


well you wouldnt would you being an advocate for it pity the law doesnt share your views and has no hesitation for putting users they catch in jail .....


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« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2011, 08:59:33 pm »

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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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« Reply #13 on: April 29, 2011, 10:36:43 am »



And then you have this:

NZ officials sabotage Thai health initiatives

Monday, 25 April 2011, 1:34 pm
Press Release: Green Party 
25 April 2011

NZ officials sabotage Thai health initiatives

New Zealand officials should not be putting pressure on another country to forego public health initiatives, Green Party alcohol spokesperson Sue Kedgley said today.

World Trade Organisation documents show that New Zealand trade officials have stepped into a trade dispute involving Thailand and the WTO, and are opposing a health initiative in Thailand to put warning labels on alcohol.

“Our Government should not be interfering in another country’s efforts to curb the harm of alcohol,” said Ms Kedgley.

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« Reply #14 on: April 29, 2011, 10:53:07 am »

Priorities huh?

IMO the Maori party would have done better to look to restricting alcohol than tobacco.

My bet is that after the RWC we will see some stringent restrictions on alcohol.
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Laughter is the best medicine, unless you've got a really nasty case of syphilis, in which case penicillin is your best bet.
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« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2011, 11:45:23 am »

if i was the Maori Party i would be doing more to help their own people sort out their dependance on drugs and teach them how to stop killing their babies ..... stuff worrying about alcohol and tobacco
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« Reply #16 on: April 29, 2011, 01:02:46 pm »

Are you saying Maori's are the only ones killing their baby's ? its not that many.

And as for what you call drug addiction I thought alcohol was the number one addictive drug.
Don't worry the government will add some more tax on booze not because they care but because they need to raise money to pay off the interest on our huge national debt.

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« Reply #17 on: April 29, 2011, 02:55:17 pm »

Are you saying Maori's are the only ones killing their baby's ? its not that many.  really

And as for what you call drug addiction I thought alcohol was the number one addictive drug.
Don't worry the government will add some more tax on booze not because they care but because they need to raise money to pay off the interest on our huge national debt. thanks mother nature we love you........ NOT !!


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« Reply #18 on: May 16, 2011, 09:17:18 pm »

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« Reply #19 on: May 16, 2011, 10:21:02 pm »


Cured: A Cannabis Story (A film by David Triplett)
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