Australia: New South Wales plans to allow medical use of cannabis

Sativex ready for release at the end of the year

***UK: Sativex ready for release at the end of the year GW Pharmaceuticals said on 19 June Sativex, which contains extracts from whole cannabis plants, is ready for release after approval by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and should be available on prescription by the end of the year. (Source: Times Online of 19 June 2003)

***Science: Cannabis reduces opiate dose Three cases from Canada were presented in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, where patients suffering from chronic pain (multiple sclerosis, HIV neuropathy, back and leg pain following an accident) were able to considerable reduce opiate doses by using cannabis. The patient with HIV neuropathy could reduce 360 mg long-acting morphine per day to 180 mg per day within four months and even to nothing within nine months. (Source: Lynch ME, and Clark AJ. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2003 Jun;25(6):496-8)

**Canada: No legal basis for charges on cannabis possession Superior Court Justice Steven Rogin upheld the decision of a lower court that there was no legal basis to ban simple possession of cannabis since the federal government failed to comply with a July 2000 order to create a new law dealing with marijuana. In January the lower court acquitted a teenager charged with cannabis possession. The ruling was appealed and resulted in the confirmation by judge Rogin. Police officials in Ontario have said they will not lay any charges for possession under 30 grams until the legal situation can be clarified. (Source: Canadian Press of 10 June 2003)

*Industrial-Hemp has no psychoactive properties following definition of the European Economic Community (EEC); THC content is less than 0.3%. In general, low THC-seed varieties without psychoactive properties are those that have a THC content of less than 1%. (See also No-THC Hemp-seed.) THC= Delta-9 TetraHydroCannabinol.