Smoked Marijuana May Ease Chronic Nerve Pain

Smoking cannabis, also known as marijuana, reduced pain in patients with nerve pain stemming from injuries or surgical complications, new research shows. Twenty-one adults with chronic nerve pain were taught to take a single inhalation of 25 milligrams of cannabis through a pipe, three times a day, for five days. The cannabis contained one of three levels of potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, as well as a placebo dosage containing no THC.All of the patients rotated through each of the four dosages, with nine days of no smoking in between. Patients smoking the highest potency marijuana reported less pain than those smoking samples containing no THC. Patients also reported better sleep and less anxiety, according to the Canadian study.

On an 11-point scale, the average daily pain intensity was 6.1 for those smoking 9.4 percent THC concentration, compared to 5.4 for those smoking cannabis containing no THC."Patients have repeatedly made claims that smoked cannabis helps to treat pain, but the issue for me had always been the lack of clinical research to support that claim," said Dr. Mark Ware, director of clinical research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. In this small but randomized, controlled trial, "the pain reductions were modest, but significant," he said. "And it was in people for whom nothing else worked."

The study is published in the Aug. 30 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Persistent nerve pain, clinically known as neuropathy, can be very difficult to treat, Ware said. These patients had tried other treatments for neuropathy, such as opioids, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and local anesthetics, with little relief, Ware said. In addition, the THC potency levels used in the study were kept at 2.5 percent, 6 percent and 9 percent considerably less than the 12 percent to 15 percent often found in marijuana sold on the street, Ware said. Researchers kept the levels low for two reasons, Ware explained. One was to minimize the psychoactive effects, such as feeling lightheaded, dizzy, detached, nauseous or euphoric.

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Teen Survey Finds Gangs, Drugs Common in U.S. Schools

Drugs and gangs are common problems at public schools in the United States, a new teen survey shows.Among public school students aged 12 to 17, 27 percent (5.7 million) report that their schools are both "gang- and drug-infected." Drug-infected means that drugs are used, kept or sold on school grounds.The 15th annual teen survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University also found that 46 percent of teens in public schools say there are gangs in their schools and 47 percent of teens say that drugs are used, kept or sold on school grounds.

Compared with teens who go to drug-free and gang-free schools, those at schools infected with both drugs and gangs are: five times more likely to smoke marijuana; three times more likely drink alcohol; 12 times more likely to smoke tobacco; three times more likely to have access to marijuana within an hour and five times more likely to have access to it within a day; and nearly five times more likely to know a peer who uses illegal drugs (such as acid, ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine or heroin). The complete survey findings were scheduled for release Thursday at a press conference at the Kaiser Family Foundation Building in Washington, D.C.

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