http://technology.newscientist.com/arti ... ef=dn14344
Morphine-cannabis super-painkiller

Pain can often be better managed when two types of painkiller are used together. For example, it has recently become known that cannabinoids such as THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, enhance the painkilling effects of opioids such as morphine.

Teaming them up could allow doses to become smaller, reducing the possibility of addiction. But a simple mixture of the drugs produces unpredictable results because the body absorbs them at different rates.

A possible solution is to join together THC and morphine to create a hybrid molecule that is snipped apart by the body, say Joseph Holtman and Peter Crooks at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky.

Their idea is to bind the two drugs together using a linking molecule such as an ester. When the body snips this linking group, both drugs are released at the site where they are needed. That should ensure both drugs will be absorbed at the same rate, making it easier to work out doses for patients.

Read the full morphine-cannabis supermolecule painkiller patent application.

Man fuck that!

That's gonna be more addictive than THC and Opiates combinded, DUH!!!!

...Mother Nature did a fine job... leave her alone!

THC is not physically addictive
psychological dependence is a whole other issue (which can lead to physical effects)

Big pharma is always looking for ways to get around the USAs world policy on cannabis. Search for Marinol or Sativex...

I got the bulk of the Sativex patients after the first trial in the UK. It worked for a lot of them which should be encouraging except these MS sufferers were dumped at the end of the trial to go back on pharma meds that we know DONT work. All reported that the cannabis we supplied (raw, tincture, chocolate etc) was at least as good as sativex and lacked a lot of the side effects. Their own doctors were also impressed albeit informally...

Sativex, like Marinol does all it can to remove all the bonuses of taking cannabis - the high feeling, the speed of the effect, the ease of titrating a dose - after all what use would these be to someone in dire pain? Sativex is only of use to those with nueropathic pain - I imagine this new drug idea will have similar restrictions.

I get to try a lot of pharma drugs as I am disabled and I can say that Marinol was worse for me than morphine when it comes to the side effects. I could just about function on morphine - Marinol just wiped me out for hours at a time. Its also the case that I am allergic to many drugs due to my disability and opiods seem to be among the worst for me. So I wouldnt be able to take this drug anyway. Other people may have difficulty with THC - which is not the only active ingredient in cannabis of course. I prefer CBD for pain relief however people with HIV may disagree.

People often get excited that big pharma is working with cannabis however it really harms the pro medical argument. All I got from the Home Office while I was actively campaigning with the clinic was 'we are allowing trials for Sativex'.

The only way forward is to allow patients to work with their doctors and people like me to work out the best approach for them (which will change over time - the idea is you STOP coming to see me as you get the hang of things or get better!) and perhaps most importantly to develop a relationship with the plant they are using to regain some quality of life. I would argue that its the relationship thats the most important aspect for those with chronic conditions, as Bucky Fuller put it 'we live in a interregenerative universe' and while this fact doesnt change when you have a chronic condition it sure helps to have a solid reminder!

Here is a pharma idea that may actually have some merit:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2008/08/26/killing-bacteria-with-cannabis

(If you ignore the irony that I may be protected from cross infection using cannaboids whilst at hospital but I cannot use them to control my chronic conditions...)