Dear Hannah -

Very sorry for not responding earlier. I concur with katcam831, with the qualification that the literature (primarily around MS) stands for the proposition that marijuana /cannabis is something of a wonder drug for spasms, while working perfectly well for pain. The only problem is that, well, you're stoned, something that may very well not happen at a dose equivalent level of opioids and Baclofen, although both may initially make you sleepy.

Here are three freely available articles that I recommend:

Cannabis use as described by people with multiple sclerosis, Page SA, Verhoef MJ, Stebbins RA et al, Can J Neurol Sci. 2003 Aug;30(3):201-5, FULL TEXT @ http://cjns.metapress.com/media/9e27...xvtpjrwf1.pdf;

Smoked cannabis for chronic neuropathic pain: a randomized controlled trial, Ware MA, Wang T, Shapiro S, CMAJ 2010 Oct 5;182(14):E694-701, Epub 2010 Aug 30, FULL TEXT @ http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/182/14/E694.pdf AND

Smoked medicinal cannabis for neuropathic pain in HIV: a randomized, crossover clinical trial, Ellis RJ, Toperoff W, Vaida F, Neuropsychopharmacology 2009 Feb;34(3):672-80, Epub 2008 Aug 6, FULL TEXT @ http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v3...pp2008120a.pdf

The funny thing is that I live in California where medical marijuana is supposed to be legal, but my pain mngt. physician is uncomfortable with me using marijuana - even if prescribed by someone else - where he and his university pain clinic write a lot of prescriptions for Schedule II medications, and is sufficiently concerned about the watchful eyes of the DEA that all patients being treated there are subject to random drug screens, although I have never been required to enter into a "treatment contract" as such. Instead, he's willing to prescribe a perfectly legal drug, Marinol, which is a synthetic but exact copy of one of the nine naturally occurring THC molecules [Delta-9] in marijuana. The only problem is that the Delta-9 molecule is apparently not the sharpest knife in the cannabis drawer: while it does a great job of resolving spasms, it takes roughly 30 - 40 minutes to become effective and then leaves me somewhat delusional for hours thereafter. Sort of like the brown Mexican pot I remember from 40 years ago. (And in stark contrast to the sensimilla buds a close friend of mine in San Francisco - who was dying of cancer - used to have delivered to her door from the marijuana dispensary of the most established AIDS clinic in the city.)

And as to Marinol, I've found that my need for it dropped dramatically after I went through an altogether new course of physical therapy, which focused solely on stretching and "nerve gliding" exercises, which I would recommend to anyone.

Finally, by way of an aside, my psychiatrist wanted me to talk to a former colleague of his, who is now running a medical marijuana practice exclusively, in which he primarily prescribes concentrated droplets know as "tincture of cannabis." I spoke to the gentleman briefly, before determining that he wasn't for me. Then ran tincture of cannabis on PubMed, and was surprised to come up with only 3 hits, and only one of them was a free article, dating to 1847! A Case of Dysmenorrhoea [painful menstruation] in Which the Tincture of Cannabis Indica Was Employed, with Some Observations upon That Drug, Barrow B, Prov Med Surg J 1847 Mar 10;11(5):122-4, FULL TEXT @ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...00388-0010.pdf (Check it out.)

I hope some of this at least is helpful.

Mike