Those following my interest in Cluster Headache research and the broader issues of illegal drugs in pain control and other conditions (Criminally in Pain and Criminally in Pain – Update) may like to check out two recent articles from New Scientist magazine (for the first of the online articles you will need a NS subscription).
In an interview with Amanda Gefter (NS 30Aug 2008), Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) shared his hope that trials on the use of MDTA (Ecstacy) for the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) may result in the drug receiving prescribed drug status.
This would represent something of a flagship breakthrough in the US; one likely to ease the path for other controversial treatments such as psilocybin for cluster headache. It would also represent a significant shift in what Doblin sees as the “the fear, the paranoia and the pathology of how the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] looks at things”. In this regard, the installation in November of a Democratic administration under Barack Obama, whose supporters, Senators Kennedy and Kerry, in 2007 endorsed the setting up of a medical marijuana facility, would be seen as a good thing – albeit politically motivated. Doblin shared the commercial insight that irrespective of the legal position there is still the task of motivating pharmaceutical companies to develop treatments based on drugs that are often both unpatentable and competing with their own products.
On a personal note, during my first visit to Venice Beach last week, it was a depressing endorsement of the ‘anti’ lobby to find hot-pantied girls with cannabis plant wristbands openly soliciting passers-by to partake of ‘medical marijuana’. Fascinating stretch of beachfront, but not helping the science go forward.
The second feature by Rachel Nowak (NS 6Sept 2008) describes the inadequate provision of opioids for the treatment of pain in terminal patients living in countries outside Europe and the USA. Nowak refers to issues addressed at two recent forums: the World Congress on Pain, and the World Cancer Summit, and cites the statistic that less than 1% of Indians get the morphine they need. Key messages are that the emphasis has tended to be on prevention of abuse rather than the positive applications of opiates (some resonance here with the previous article) , and that restricting prescription priviledges to doctors only is unworkable in regions of Africa and Asia.
Latest Update 15th September 2008
Federal Court Rules Against Bush Administration’s Subversion of California’s Medical [Cannabis] Laws
See full article here