Now that research has shown its positive effect on neuropathic pain and even spasticity, some people with spinal cord disorders are joining the fight to legalize medical cannabis.

Julie Falco (Photo by Paul Meredith)

By Lori A. Wood

Proponents of medicinal marijuana have credited it with the alleviation of everything from chemotherapy- induced nausea to glaucoma. Could the muscle spasticity and neuropathic pain common to certain spinal cord disorders (SCDs) someday be added to that list? According to researchers, it’s possible.

At the University of California in San Diego, the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (www.cmcr.ucsd.edu) is funding studies to examine the safety and efficacy of medicinal cannabis for a variety of illnesses. “The Center came about in 2000, as the result of a bill passed by the California legislature and signed into law by the governor, called the Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2000,” says Dr. Andrew Mattison, co-director of the Center. “It was a follow-up on Proposition 215— compassionate use of medical marijuana for patients. Our program is directed toward safety issues, and whether medicinal cannabis works for selected medical indications.”

“The reason that this research has started seriously in the last ten years is that we know a lot more now about what are called cannabinoid receptor systems than we did before,” explains Heather Bentley, project manager at the Center. “It turns out that the body makes its own cannabinoids, as it does its own opioids. Now that we know more about the systems, we can start to target the receptors to produce analgesia, to help with things like muscle spasticity. Scientifically, that’s how we think that cannabis and its natural materials, like delta-9-tetrahydrocannbinol (THC), cannabidiol and cannabinol, as well as those cannabinoids that are less understood, produce this action.”

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