http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/30/health.pot.reduce.pain/?hpt=SbinStudy: Smoking pot may ease chronic pain
By Amanda Gardner
People with chronic pain who aren't getting enough relief from medications may be able to ease their pain by smoking small amounts of marijuana, a new study suggests.
Marijuana also helps pain patients fall asleep more easily and sleep more soundly, according to the report, one of the first real-world studies to look at the medicinal use of smoked marijuana. Most previous research has used extracts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in the cannabis plant.
"This is the first time anyone has done a trial of smoked cannabis on an outpatient basis," says the lead researcher, Mark Ware, M.B.B.S., the director of clinical research at McGill University's Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, in Montreal.
The study included 21 adults with nervous-system (neuropathic) pain stemming from surgery, accidents, or other trauma. Fourteen of the participants were on short-term disability or permanently disabled. All of them had tried marijuana before, but none were current or habitual smokers. "They were not experienced marijuana users," Ware says. "They came because they had severe pain that was not responding to any conventional treatment."...