Smoking cannabis does ease chronic nerve pain

Puffing cannabis from a pipe can significantly reduce chronic pain in patients with damaged nerves, a study has shown.

According to researchers, smoking the drug also lessened anxiety and depression.

Pill preparations of cannabis extract have been successful in treating certain types of pain, but researchers have previously avoided studying the effects of smoking cannabis, as if taking the drug to get high.

A team of Canadian scientists conducted a trial to test inhaled cannabis in 21 patients with chronic neuropathic pain caused by traumatic injury or surgery.

The researchers used herbal cannabis, or "grass", at four potency levels. Patients aged 25 to 77 were asked to smoke 25 milligrams of the drug from a pipe three times a day.

Researchers at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit, McGill University Health Centre said that the highest-potency cannabis, containing 9.4 per cent of the active ingredient THC, reduced pain, decreased anxiety and depression, and aided sleep in adult subjects with chronic post-traumatic/post-surgical neuropathic pain.

No serious adverse effects occurred during the trial.

The findings, which were reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal are believed to be the first from a clinical trial of smoked cannabis.