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Pot users sought for study
By: Charlie Fidelman, Vancouver Sun (CN BC), 12-09-04

MONTREAL -- Seeking seriously motivated pot users -- in a lot of pain.

Montreal's McGill University is heading a year-long, Canada-wide study on the safety of cannabis used for medical purposes.

Recreational potheads need not apply.

Seven pain clinics across the country are now enrolling patients for this study, considered a first of its kind, lead investigator Mark Ware of the McGill University Health Centre, said Wednesday.

"We obviously can't take in every cannabis user that's got a little bit of back pain. It has to be people who are critically in a lot of pain and whose other therapies are failing them," Ware said. "Physicians know who these people are."

The typical recruit would have pain from spinal-cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, nerve injury and other kinds of treatment-resistant pain, but cancer patients are not being sought.

Ware is already involved in studies measuring marijuana's therapeutic value in pain control. But in the COMPASS study -- cannabis for the management of pain: assessment of safety study -- he's seeking to document adverse side effects. How does pot use affect the heart, kidney, liver and lungs as well as cognitive functions including memory and concentration?

The study expects to answer these questions by following 1,400 patients with chronic pain, including 350 who already use pot as part of their therapy.

Free weed will be supplied by Health Canada. The strain supplied is to contain 12 per cent of the active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

For study participants, marijuana possession will be legal. They'll be able get their doses at local pharmacies -- starting with once a week for the first month, then once a month for the rest of the year. It's to be used at home as usual -- smoked, brewed as tea or cooked in recipes.