The following new items are included in this month's OPNews:

* OPN BOARD MEMBERS TO DEBATE MEDICAL MARIJUANA

* OPN BEGINS MEDIA CAMPAIGN

* OPN POSTS FIRST PRINT ADVERTISEMENT

* JUDGE IN CMRC CASE GRANTS FEDS ACCESS TO ALL MEDI-POT PATIENT FILES

* CANNABIS A MEDICAL MIRACLE - IT'S OFFICIAL

* CANNABIS THE WONDER DRUG?

The following items are included in every OPNews:

* OPNews DISCLAIMER

* YOU ARE INVITED TO OPN MEETINGS

* HOW TO GET YOUR INFORMATION IN OPNews

* HOW TO BE REMOVED FROM THE OPNews LIST

* HOW TO CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR

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OPN BOARD MEMBERS TO DEBATE MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The Health Law Association of Ohio State University is sponsoring a debate on Medical Marijuana in January, date to be announced soon.

The HLA committee requested proponents from the Ohio Patient Network and opponents from the Ohio legislature.

While the OPN board voted for President John Precup and Development Director Kenneth Schweickart to participate, the opponents are not yet known, other than to be of the extreme right of the political fence.

Schweickart emphasized, "We feel confident that we can counter any argument regarding this issue, because we have the science behind us."

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OPN BEGINS MEDIA CAMPAIGN

OPN began its media campaign this month. The public relations committee, which is co-chaired by Mary Jane Borden and John Precup, has been sending out faxes to dozens of newspapers and other media outlets across Ohio.

"We have hit all the major cities," reports Precup. He also said that many other "small market" newspapers have been contacted. "Its all part of the grand plan," states Precup. One of OPN's main goals is to educate.

"It is our hope that the media will use OPN as its main source for information about the therapeutic uses of cannabis. As you may know, there is plenty of bad and misinformation out there. We want to work with the media to help insure fair and accurate reporting."

The introduction package contains a letter explaining the OPN and how our organization can benefit their outlet. Included with the letter are a copy of our fact sheet and a list of medical cannabis Internet sources.

The Fact sheet and a list of Web addresses can be found at our website. They are in .pdf format and are ready to be printed and distributed. We encourage you to make use of all the information available at our website http://www.ohiopatient.net/.

"The campaign dose not stop here," said Precup. "We plan to expand our contacts to radio and television as well."

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OPN POSTS FIRST PRINT ADVERTISEMENT

On November 8, OPN posted its first print advertisement in Outlook News, a weekly publication that reaches Columbus and Central Ohio. The move continued the goal of expanding our network's exposure and membership.

The advertisement, which was designed by Mary Jane Borden, was made possible through generous donations that were pledged at OPN's September meeting (see "OPN Meeting a Success" in September's OPNews at http://ohiopatient.net/newsletter/sep01.htm).

You can view and print a flyer of the OPN advertisement at http://ohiopatient.net/Get_involved.htm#PDF.

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JUDGE IN CMRC CASE GRANTS FEDS ACCESS TO ALL MEDI-POT PATIENT FILES

Source: NORML Weekly News Bulletin, November 15, 2001. http://www.norml.org/news/archives/01-11-15.shtml

(Sacramento, CA) A federal judge ruled Tuesday [November 13] that all of the estimated 6,000 patient and client files seized from the offices of the California Medical Research Center (CMRC) shall remain in the hands of federal prosecutors. Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr., overruled a magistrate's order that allowed the government access to some of the files only after an independent, court-appointed "special master" had reviewed them for relevance to an ongoing criminal investigation. J. David Nick, attorney for the facility's proprietors - attorney Dale Schafer and physician Marion "Molly" Fry - will appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Federal agents raided the offices of the CMRC in El Dorado County on September 28, seizing 32 marijuana plants, computers and thousands of medical records from the center's members. Fry, a medical marijuana patient, and her husband were not arrested in the raid and have yet to be formally charged with a crime.

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CANNABIS A MEDICAL MIRACLE - IT'S OFFICIAL

Source: The Observer (UK). Copyright: 2001 The Observer (http://www.observer.co.uk/). This article is archived at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1858.a13.html.

By: Anthony Browne, Health Editor

Scientific Tests Of 'Wonder Drug' Give Patients New Hope

(UK) Cannabis is a 'wonder drug' capable of radically transforming the lives of very sick people, according to the results of the first clinical trials of the drug.

Tests sanctioned by the Government are proving far more successful than doctors, patients and cannabis campaigners ever dared hope. Some of the patients are simply calling it a 'miracle'.

Taking the drug - which it is still illegal for doctors to prescribe - has allowed a man previously so crippled with pain that he was impotent to become a father; a woman paralysed by multiple sclerosis to ride a horse for the first time in years; and a man who couldn't sit up in a chair on his own to live without a carer.

Until now claims of the benefits of the drug for certain conditions have been anecdotal. But the preliminary results of the UK government trial, started last year, suggest that 80 per cent of those taking part have derived more benefit from cannabis than from any other drug, with many describing it as 'miraculous'.

The results make it almost inevitable that the Government will bow to public pressure and legalise the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes by 2002. Scientists now predict that cannabis - first used for medicinal reasons 5,000 years ago - will follow aspirin and penicillin and become a 'wonder drug' prescribed for a wide range of conditions.

Bowing to pressure for a less hard-line attitude, the Home Office started the first major cannabis trials in the world to see whether there was any scientific basis for its use as medicine. A licence was granted to a specially formed drug company to grow the plants under controlled conditions in a secret location in southern England. Twenty-three patients, suffering from multiple sclerosis and arthritis, were recruited on to the first trial, and given daily doses of cannabis by spraying it under the tongue, before wider trials were started.

The remarkable stories of the patients will be revealed tonight on the BBC programme Panorama, which was granted unique access to them.

Alex Ure, a former paratrooper, suffers from a severe spinal condition. The pain was so bad he considered suicide; he found legal painkillers turned him into a zombie and he couldn't have sex with his wife, Wendy, for five years. But after starting the trial he became a father. 'I couldn't even bend down and play with a child before - I could do anything now,' he said.

His doctor, Willy Notcutt, of James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth, was sure the cannabis was responsible: 'His pain has been sufficiently controlled to engage in sex again,' he said.

Tyrone Castle, a former publican, started suffering from multiple sclerosis when he was 21 and became so incapacitated he needed two helpers to winch him out of bed. He also suffered from uncontrollable spasms. Cannabis has transformed his life.

'It has really helped sort out my spasms. It helps me sleep because I don't spend the night jumping about. The difference in my legs is unbelievable - they are no longer stiff as a board,' he said.

Jo, the wife of a school chaplain, suffered so badly from multiple sclerosis she would struggle to lift her legs up in the air six times. After she started the trial, she could lift her legs 25 times. 'It's miraculous, really extraordinary. I've never had any sort of relief of this kind, and I've tried pretty well everything,' she said.

Notcutt said the trial was a success: 'The results have exceeded what I dared hope for. We're getting 80 per cent of patients good-quality benefit from the cannabis. For some we are getting almost total relief from their pain, with pain scores going down to zero.'

Doctors believe cannabis could eventually prove useful in conditions such as osteoporosis, cancer, HIV and Aids, arthritis, spine injury and certain forms of mental illness.

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CANNABIS THE WONDER DRUG?

Source: The British Medical Journal (UK) Sat, 10 Nov 2001. Issue: BMJ 2001;323:1136 (10 November), Section: Reviews, Press. Copyright: 2001 The BMJ (http://www.bmj.com/). This article is archived at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1892.a03.html.

By: Trevor Jackson

(UK) At a secret location in the home counties of England, 15 000 cannabis plants are being grown quite legally. They are being bred from strains whose names -- Hindu Kush, Skunk, Northern Lights, Gloria -- are redolent of the Amsterdam coffee house scene. Their psychoactive seed heads, which stand over two metres high, are carefully studied -- but never smoked. For these plants are being cultivated as part of the world's first commercial trial of medicinal cannabis.

The company behind the trial, GW Pharmaceuticals, based at Porton Down Science Park in Wiltshire, has had a rather good fortnight. Firstly, the home secretary, David Blunkett, announced on 23 October that the government would liberalise the law concerning possession and use of cannabis. He also indicated that he would be ready to license cannabis for medicinal use to treat multiple sclerosis and other conditions as soon as research trials were completed. Most commentators ( including, albeit grudgingly, the Daily Mail leader writers ) seemed to approve. On 24 October shares in GW Pharmaceuticals jumped from 13p to 108p.

Secondly, the press this week hailed cannabis as a wonder drug and a miracle cure. Under the headline "Cannabis proves a medical miracle," the Observer, a newspaper not normally known for its hype, reported on 4 November that the first clinical trials of cannabis were showing that it was "capable of transforming the lives of very sick people."

After decades of cannabis being condemned as one of the scourges of Western society, this all seemed a bit too good to be true. Were these claims going too far? What sort of evidence was available?

The source of the Observer's story was the BBC 1 Panorama documentary "Cannabis from the chemist," broadcast on 4 November. The programme looked at two separate trials -- a pilot study ( n# ) in East Anglia of the effects of cannabis on the pain caused by nerve damage, and the early stages of a much larger trial in Oxford of the effects of cannabis on people with multiple sclerosis. The programme did not make clear the total number involved in the latter trial -- its medical director said in passing that he had initially seen 20 patients -- and based its conclusions on the experiences of Sandra, Tyrone, and Jo ( n=3 ).

GW Pharmaceuticals is the only company in the United Kingdom that has been given a license to grow cannabis for medicinal use. Panorama's journalists were the only ones to have access to those taking part in the company's trials. Alex, who had a spinal injury, and Sandra, Tyrone, and Jo, who all had multiple sclerosis, received daily doses of cannabis sprayed under the tongue. They all showed remarkable progress. Although none of them had expected to be cured, they all experienced relief from pain. Jo, the 58 year old wife of a school chaplain, had struggled to lift her legs before the trial but afterwards was able to lift them 25 times. She hailed the drug's effects as "miraculous," and her husband said, "It's not a word that either of us would use lightly."

Dr Willy Notcutt of the East Anglian pilot study said, "The results so far have exceeded what I dared hope for...we are seeing 80% of our patients getting good quality benefit from the cannabis." Some were getting almost total pain relief, he said. "We have seen their pain scores go down to zero."

More dramatic claims were made by Professor Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School, one of the world's leading proponents of medicinal cannabis. Although not involved in the trials, Grinspoon claimed that cannabis would "eventually be used by millions of people around the planet." Just as penicillin "was considered the wonder drug of the 1940s," he said, cannabis "will eventually be seen as the wonder drug of the 21st century."

On Panorama's website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/panorama) the next day, Philip Robson, medical director of the Oxford trials, expressed concern about newspaper "wonder drug" headlines. He said: "We have to keep this in perspective. This seems to be a medicine which is incredibly useful for people who haven't had very much luck with the standard medicines, and that is really good, but I think to talk about wonder drugs and miracle cures is way over the top."

But newspaper headline writers can hardly be blamed for their "wonder drug" approach to the story. Panorama had given them plenty to go on, concluding: "We could see the drug in the chemist in just two years." Admittedly, Grinspoon's wild optimism was balanced with words of caution from, among others, Susan Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, who said: "The very term wonder drug is very frightening." And it would have been odd if Panorama had not embraced the opportunity to follow this historic experiment. But the result was rather like a commercial for GW Pharmaceuticals, even though the company's name was never mentioned.