Article Preview
Medical cannabis is a blunt tool

* 30 July 2006
* Helen Phillips
* Magazine issue

Results of clinical trials of cannabis have been mixed and it now seems there are fundamental problems with how our bodies respond to the stuff

If anecdotes and ancient medicine are to be trusted, cannabis is a wonder drug. Yet results of clinical trials have been mixed and its use in modern medicine remains limited. Now it seems the reasons may be practical as much as political and cultural: there are fundamental problems with how our bodies respond to the stuff.

Some compounds in cannabis, including THC and cannabidiol, interfere with a natural signalling system throughout our brains, nerves and immune system. This system, which produces its own cannabis-like compounds called endocannabinoids, plays a role in many medical conditions including pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, depression and schizophrenia.

Because the system is so widespread, smoking or ingesting cannabis is bound to have varied effects, including its influence on the mind. Now it seems that even with purified cannabis extracts, changing the amount, time or place of a dose could produce completely opposite effects on ...