The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s chief scientist (Professor Tony Moffat)
has been in the news over the past week as a result of presentations on cannabis
at the recent British Pharmaceutical Conference (PJ, September 16, p427)
and research published in Nature Neuroscience (November, 2000, p1073), which
newspapers interpreted as having shown that cannabis was as addictive as heroin
or cocaine.
The Sunday Telegraph had picked up on the BPC reports and sought Professor Moffat’s
views on the safety of cannabis. He was also asked how he saw the possible legalisation
of cannabis. In addition, Professor Moffat was interviewed for Channel 4 and
BBC Overseas television programmes.
In an interview for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on October 16, Professor
Moffat said that he expected clinical trials to show that cannabis was an effective
treatment for pain and spasms in multiple sclerosis. If that was the case, then
governments across the world would legalise the medicinal use of cannabis.
Professor Moffat told The Journal on October 17 that the Sunday Telegraph had
been wrong to report that he expected acceptance for social use to follow.
Commenting on the Nature Neuroscience paper, Professor Moffat said that it had
not shown that cannabis was addictive, but that when monkeys were given the
opportunity to auto-inject tetrahydrocannabinol, they did so.