Short News November 9th 3002

Short News Nov. 9th, 2003:

***USA: California Governor Gray Davis has signed a controversial medical- marijuana bill which will take effect on 1 January 2004. The new law offers confidential photo identification cards, on a voluntary basis, to document patients who are registered and protected. But although California has vowed to protect the identity of medical- marijuana ID card holders, many patients worry that federal drug agents will seize any list that they can get their hands on and use it as a hit list for arrests. (Source: Los Angeles Daily Journal of 6 November 2003)

***Science: Anxiety Pharmacological blockade of the enzyme FAAH that is responsible for the degradation of the endocannabinoid anandamide produces anxiolytic-like effects. FAAH blockade results in an increased anandamide concentration. These findings suggest that anandamide contributes to the regulation of emotion and anxiety, and that FAAH (fatty acid amide hydrolase) might be the target for a novel class of anxiolytic drugs. (Source: Gaetani S, et al. Trends Mol Med 2003;9(11):474-8)

***Science: Pain THC in a dose of 5 mg was not effective in reducing postoperative pain. 40 women who had undergone surgery received either 5 mg THC or placebo, if patients requested further analgesia on the second postoperative day. There were no significant differences between the two substances. As demonstrated in earlier studies 5 mg THC is usually an ineffective dose for the treatment of pain. (Source: Buggy DJ, et al. Pain 2003;106(1-2):169-72)

***Canada: GW and Bayer GW Pharmaceuticals und Bayer HealthCare of Canada announce a marketing agreement to bring Sativex, GW's cannabis-extract to the Canadian market. (Source: Canada NewsWire of 6 November 2003)

***Science: Glaucoma In glaucoma, the increased release of glutamate is the major cause of retinal nerve cell death. In this study it was shown that glutamate causes apoptosis (programmed cell death) of retina nerves via the excessive formation of peroxynitrite, and that the neuroprotective effect of THC and of cannabidiol (CBD) is via the attenuation of peroxynitrite formation. (Source: El-Remessy AB, et al. Am J Pathol 2003;163(5):1997-2008)

*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.