Sadly here in the UK we can't even try the darned stuff....and some days I'd really like to....

I don't want to smoke. I don't want to get high. But I do want to try the active part of the cannabis plant that has been proven to be beneficial for neuropathic disorders - the cannabinoids. It is perfectly possible to isolate these, and there is a particular strain of cannabis that is very high in the cannabinoids and low in THC (the bit that gets you high), but sadly the people who have grown this strain and supply it for those with the medical backing to get it, also grow vastly more quantities of the high-THC strains loved by pot-heads who give this amazing drug such a bad name and are the reason it is banned in so many countries. It is also the reason it is almost impossible to get research funding to explore its potential and actually come up with a proper drug to help folk like us with chronic neuropathic pain.

In the UK the only legal route is a drug called Sativex. It is so bound up in red tape and laws that it's almost impossible to get it prescribed, and it's mostly only prescribed for MS sufferers. Ironically, you are meant to go through the whole gamut of other, far more horrific, drugs like morphine before you can be officially classed as having 'tried everything else' and then be given it. Also ironically, if you should get the stuff, Sativex isn't even that good... The pharma company that make it have isolated certain bits of cannabis, because if they just included cannabis in the med they wouldn't be able to patent it and make a truck-load of cash. Sadly, they haven't isolated much of the useful neuropathic part...

The whole thing makes me mad. Cannabis was a known useful medicinal drug long LONG before some young folk realised that it got them nicely stoned, and it became associated with the negative social effects of lots of young people smoking enough pot to just drop out of society and not give two hoots about anything except exploring different ways of smoking the stuff... It's time it was claimed back for medicine - and the high-THC strains should be the illegal thing, NOT the plant itself.

Making cannabis illegal, and vilifying it, have not controlled it's use as a recreational drug. If anything, that's just made it 'cool'. All it's done is remove a rare and useful medicinal drug from the reach of those who need it. Of course it's not a panacea for all ills, and might not be perfect, but properly researched and used it could be a powerful weapon for sufferers. Because let's be honest, there's very little that actually does help us out there right now.

We are light years away from making cannabis legal here, simply because where it has been legalised in the US and other countries, the general social effect is negative. Towns tend to end up with cannabis bars and cannabis shops, and groups of mainly young people sitting about smoking the stuff like mad, not working and generally not contributing anything positive to society. I know I'm generalising, and not everyone who smokes pot is like that, but unfortunately that is largely the reality.

Other prescription drugs are abused by drug-users, it should be perfectly possible to allow medical marijuana usage, and still have it illegal to steal it, sell it, or use it recreationally, as they have with some prescription drugs.

Oh, for some common sense somewhere in government and medicine...

This post took me blinking ages to do, and has used up my sitting time nicely Time to lie down again now and wish I had a drug that worked...

Bram.