'Cannabis medicine has helped my MS'

12:49pm Sunday 3rd February 2008

A FORMER nurse who was forced to smoke cannabis to cope with the agonising pain of multiple sclerosis is one of the first in the North-East to be prescribed a new cannabis-based drug.

Pauline Taylor, 55, from Pity Me, has spent the past two years pleading with her GP and her hospital consultant to prescribe her the under-the-tongue spray, known as Sativex.

The drug works within about 15 minutes and helps to dull the intense pain caused by MS, a crippling, progressive disease which affects the nervous system.

A sufferer of MS for 20 years, Mrs Taylor was driven to buying cannabis from street dealers because it was the only drug that helped her keep pain at bay.

Sativex is the first cannabis-based medication to be produced and is already fully licensed in Canada.

A recent study in Liverpool showed that Sativex can significantly reduce nerve pain and sleep disturbance in MS patients.

In Mrs Taylor's case, it was only the intervention of another specialist, a consultant who works for a North-East hospice, that broke the deadlock and allowed her to receive the drug on the NHS.

Mrs Taylor said: "It has taken me two years of misery to get this drug and while I am grateful I feel that it should be much easier for people with MS to get Sativex."

She urged MS sufferers to ask their GPs and hospital doctors about getting access to the drug, which is still undergoing trials in the UK.

Since a relaxation of regulations more than two years ago, doctors have been able to prescribe the drug on a named patient basis.

But despite the large number of MS sufferers in the UK - estimated at about 85,000 - only around 1,000 have so far been able to be prescribed Sativex.

"This is the first MS drug I have taken which helps me and has no side-effects. It works within about 15 minutes. You take it when you feel a spasm coming on and it helps to reduce the pain. It is also much healthier than smoking cannabis," said Mrs Taylor.

She said doctors were still reluctant to prescribe Sativex to their patients because of the stigma surrounding the illegal use of cannabis.

"Stories about youngsters getting psychotic illness after using cannabis do not do us any favours," she said.

Sativex was developed by the Salisbury-based company GW Pharmaceuticals.

Designed to be used as an under-the-tongue spray, it contains two chemicals found in cannabis - tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol.

A spokes-man for GW Pharmaceuticals said that, in accordance with a request from the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority, the company was conducting a further clinical trial on Sativex as part of their application for a UK licence.

It is hoped the results will be known later this year.

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