Small Molecules from Nature Targeting G-Protein Coupled Cannabinoid Receptors: Potential Leads for Drug Discovery and Development

The cannabinoid molecules are derived from Cannabis sativa plant which acts on the cannabinoid receptors types 1 and 2 (CB₁ and CB₂) which have been explored as potential therapeutic targets for drug discovery and development. Currently, there are numerous cannabinoid based synthetic drugs used in clinical practice like the popular ones such as nabilone, dronabinol, and Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol mediates its action through CB₁/CB₂ receptors. However, these synthetic based Cannabis derived compounds are known to exert adverse psychiatric effect and have also been exploited for drug abuse. This encourages us to find out an alternative and safe drug with the least psychiatric adverse effects. In recent years, many phytocannabinoids have been isolated from plants other than Cannabis. Several studies have shown that these phytocannabinoids show affinity, potency, selectivity, and efficacy towards cannabinoid receptors and inhibit endocannabinoid metabolizing enzymes, thus reducing hyperactivity of endocannabinoid systems. Also, these naturally derived molecules possess the least adverse effects opposed to the synthetically derived cannabinoids. Therefore, the plant based cannabinoid molecules proved to be promising and emerging therapeutic alternative. The present review provides an overview of therapeutic potential of ligands and plants modulating cannabinoid receptors that may be of interest to pharmaceutical industry in search of new and safer drug discovery and development for future therapeutics.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4664820/?fbclid=IwAR0ZPyLOc-TY_sGfdocwyV3Hf7pO0J_FNlUMu7Iuti5CmdWF0UEjegH-khI

Hannah Deacon Interview: Concerns of ‘Lack of understanding’ from outdated NICE interim guidance for cannabis based medicine

HCM Interviews Hannah Deacon, mother of Alfie Dingley, to ask what she thinks of the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) interim guidance for cannabis-based medicinal products – released yesterday, August 8th, 2019.

A brief summary of the review indicates that more evidence, and randomized controlled trials are needed to fully understand the long term effects and side effects of cannabis based medicines on patients, stating there is simply not enough evidence that it is safe.

When asked for her thoughts on NICE’s findings Hannah said

“I think this is absolutely ridiculous! Are we saying that every country in the world with a medical cannabis legislation is wrong? Are we that arrogant?

I think that we are pharmaceuticalizing cannabis, and that is wrong. It does not lend itself to a randomized controlled trial process, because of the nature of the plant.”

Hannah moves on to to say “Until the exceptionality of this medicine is accepted, we’re not going to move forward, I don’t think. I think that is extremely sad, I think NICE are outdated”

Hannah openly states that she, herself applied to be on the panel. She was told that she could be, but only if sacrificing any media opportunities, or being able to talk about her feelings about cannabis.

Hannah points to the hypocrisy of the situation stating

“I know there are people on that panel, that have created that guidance, who have openly in the last year, talked to the media about their concerns about cannabis medicine.

My feeling is that there is a real question to be asked of these people that actually wrote this guidance, and it’s very very concerning, and I’m very very upset and angry about it, because all it does is block access!

Children, and the families I work with, they haven’t got 10, 15, 20 years to wait for randomized controlled trials, and actually what will happen at the end of those trials when a pharmaceutical company makes the medicine – That will still be inferior to the plant!”

Hannah speaks of her greatest concern as a mother and advocate, being the alternative for families who are still going to be fighting the restrictions for access to cannabis medicine from our government saying

“Actually my greatest concern is that families who are very vulnerable, with very very sick children will turn to the black market, and use products which are inferior and are not safe.”

In comparison, Hannah then raises the issue of Sativex, a scheduled drug that has had trials conducted. NICE’s recommendation for Sativex fell short only based on it’s cost-effectiveness.

“Sativex is 50/50 CBD/THC. So they’re saying there’s no evidence that THC is safe, yet they’ve done trials with Sativex.

THC doesn’t suddenly change if you put it in a different medicine, it’s THC! It shows the lack of understanding of cannabis from the people that have written this ‘evidence’ and this guidance.”

We find out more about Hannah, and her son Alfie in the full interview which will be avaiable on our Hemp & CBD Media Youtube channel from 10/08/2019. Tune in to watch and find out more about Hannah’s efforts to raise awareness of the benefits of cannabis on behalf of other suffering families currently being denied access to the plant.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HempCBDMedia

WE HAVE LAND – AND WILL BE CONFIRMING EVERYTHING THIS WEEKEND

When the law changed on medical cannabis in November last year, families relying on it rejoiced, assuming their struggle to obtain the drug would be over.

The vast majority of those families were wrong – less than 100 people have received NHS prescriptions for medical cannabis – meaning many have been forced to pay thousands to access the medicine privately.

• Mother of five-year-old with epilepsy has cannabis oil confiscated
• Family’s frustration as battle for cannabis oil continues despite law change

One family who had their hopes raised with the promise of medical cannabis are the Levys.

Elaine Levy heard about the case of Alfie Dingley – a young boy whose seizures were severely reduced after taking medical cannabis – and decided to see if the treatment would work for daughter Fallon, who has severe epilepsy.

She says the drug gave Fallon “her life back” and described “raising a glass of Champagne” when she heard about the law change that would allow her to access cannabis legally and cheaply.

Unfortunately, Fallon is not one of the lucky recipients of an NHS prescription and her family pays thousands of pounds every month to access the medicine privately.

Before having access to medical cannabis, Fallon, 25, suffered up to 15 epileptic seizures a day.

Now, Elaine says, “she can walk, she can talk, her intelligence has gone up hugely, she has proper conversations”.

“What price can you put on that?” she asks.

But without an NHS prescription, the price is rather high – she pays around £2500 every month and was forced to remortgage her house to afford it.

• Patients’ expectations ‘unfairly raised’ over medicinal cannabis use
• Families say NHS prescriptions for medical cannabis are ‘too restrictive’

She says she’ll do “whatever it takes” to keep her daughter well, but doesn’t know how long she will be able to afford the drugs for.

Without cannabis, Elaine says Fallon would be forced to “go back to the wheelchair” and start taking “clobazam valium type drugs, where you can’t eat properly and you’re doped up”.

“Well as a parent, who would do that?” she asks.

The Levys are also crowdfunding “to help Fallon get the medicine she needs”.Last updated Thu 8 Aug 2019

Medical cannabis cannot be approved for use on children with severe epilepsy on the NHS because there is not enough evidence to prove it helps, a watchdog has ruled.

The decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) dismayed campaigners and parents who said their children would suffer as a result.

Last year the law was changed so that the drug could be prescribed legally after the parents of Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell, who both have treatment-resistant epilepsy, publicly defied the authorities to bring cannabis oil into the UK.

But doctors have been reluctant to prescribe cannabis-based medicines in the UK in spite of the rescheduling of the drug in November, because of the lack of clinical trial evidence of its benefits and safety. Nice is calling for more research.

The watchdog also turned down Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine developed for multiple sclerosis, on the grounds that the price was too high. It said the drug was not cost-effective for the NHS and alternatives should be used instead.

Another cannabis-based drug, nabilone, was recommended in the draft guidance as an add-on treatment for adults with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, but only if other conventional licensed medicines do not work.

Prof Mike Barnes, the chair of the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society, said Nice was wrong to want to assess medical cannabis on the basis of the same sort of randomised clinical trials used to approve conventional medicines.

He said it had “failed to take into account alternative, valid sources of evidence” and he claimed the Nice committee was made up of people with negative views about cannabis. “Those with positive views were excluded from the process,” he said.

Hannah Deacon, whose son Alfie Dingley is one of only two patients with an NHS prescription, said she was extremely disappointed. “There are hundreds of thousands of people using cannabis-based medicines across the world and it’s having an enormously positive impact on their health,” she said. “Many countries have legalised medical cannabis industries – America, Canada and other G7 countries – they see the evidence is good enough. The UK is insisting on reinventing the wheel for no reason and the people who are suffering are patients.”

She said she was supporting 20 families who were trying to get prescriptions from UK doctors and who could not afford to pay thousands of pounds to travel to Europe every month to get the medicine illegally.

The MS Society also said it was bitterly disappointed. “Nice’s refusal to recommend cannabis for pain and muscles spasms, or to fund Sativex on the NHS, means thousands of people with MS will continue to be denied an effective treatment,” said Genevieve Edwards, the society’s director of external affairs.

“MS is relentless, painful and disabling and yet not a single person with MS has benefited from medicinal cannabis being legalised nine months ago. The government and the companies behind Sativex need to make people with MS a priority. Together with Nice, they must get around the table immediately to make Sativex available. This depends on the manufacturers accepting a lower price for the medicine, as right now the cost is entirely unrealistic.”

If you click on this link you get the map. If you hover over your constituency you see how many people have voted in your area.

Set yourself a target and see if you can help influence the people in your area. This is a good tool to track progress in our local communities for our cause. And can use it to pressure the MP as we know how many people we are like minded with and actively engaging politically with cannabis issues.

https://petitionmap.unboxedconsulting.com/?petition=255693

Please, everyone, get your case studies in. It’s a simple form and doesn’t take long to complete. It really is the least we can all do and it will form something powerful for the WTU solicitor to use. Most of us in this group are keyboard warriors and this is your best weapon at this point in time so PLEASE please do it: https://www.wtuhq.org/survey-for-case-studies/

Campaigning for wider access to cannabis in the UK has a long and fruitful history. Beginning as a movement for general access to cannabis as a recreational drug before evolving (or devolving depending on your perspective) into a more sophisticated and well-funded campaign specifically designed to enlighten and engage the British public into the wonderful world of the medicinal properties of the once demonised plant.

For many of those with a long history of involvement in the UK cannabis community, the recent involvement of large, multinational corporations in the push for legalising access to “medicinal” cannabis represents a new era of cannabis: a hijacking of a corporate, and sinister, nature.

Cannabis, especially “medical” cannabis, is quickly becoming one of the most lucrative markets in the world. As more and more countries legalise access to cannabis medications, the market of consumers grows, enticing entrepreneurs and campaigners alike.

In 2018, the legal cannabis market in the US was valued at $11.9 billion, with experts anticipating this to expand at a CAGR of 24.1% from 2019 to 2025, with the value of the market expected to reach $66.3 billion by the end of 2025.

This corporate take-over of cannabis has many campaigners, both those new to the game and the old school veterans, scrambling for a more equitable outcome: one where those who prefer to don an attire made from hemp have as much of a voice as their three-pieced counterparts.

Phil Monk is one of those voices. A veteran of campaigning for equal access to cannabis, regardless of whether the use is recreational or medicinal. “I must say that there is no such thing as ‘medical cannabis’,” Phil explains, “There is only cannabis. Well grown or poorly grown, in all its wonderful varieties.”

A fresh take on British cannabis campaigning: We The Undersigned

The only stuff on offer is synthetic stuff which is for a tiny spectrum of patients and even then it’s cost prohibitive and not recommended.

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/gid-ng10124/documents/draft-guideline?fbclid=IwAR2xhgGcaGUt2SMeuBPeN-KZ1cgwtWxE3DjIArQSsGAv2CGq6svBRT89ers

Neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt lost his job as the UK’s chief drug advisor when he publicly criticized the government’s drug policies. Now, as the Edmond J Safra professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, he’s publishing articles in prominent journals to encourage physicians to “embrace cannabis like penicillin.”

Nutt says that doctors embraced penicillin without first running a full suite of trials because it met a major clinical need at the time. The same is true for patients suffering from severe epilepsy and other debilitating conditions, Nutt says, and therefore the response to medical cannabis should be no different from how the healthcare profession embraced penicillin 70 years ago.

Distinguished Professor Wants Doctors to Overcome Fears About Prescribing Cannabis

The UK’s restrictive drug laws have been in the spotlight more than a few times in recent years. A number of high-profile instances of young patients being denied access to medical cannabis products, including non-psychoactive CBD generated such public outcry that UK lawmakers had to move the needle—slightly—on medical cannabis policy. Despite the loosening of the UK’s restrictive policy, however, doctors have still been reticent to actually prescribe cannabis to patients, especially minors.

Former Chief Drug Advisor Urges UK Officials to “Embrace Cannabis Like Penicillin”