BOLTON MP Brian Iddon has congratulated the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain for setting out the rules by which extracts of cannabis plants, and the drug that results can be used in clinical trials to tackle pain.

The former chemistry lecturer was at the Society's headquarters when they unveiled the protocols to be used, after the Government allowed clinical trials.

The Bolton South East MP, who has angered Home Secretary Jack Straw by supporting a Royal Commission into the legalisation of cannabis, continued to press for such a move.

He told the Society: "It seems amazing that it has taken 2000 years of cannabis use to reach this important point in the history of medicine. Perhaps all the public pressure to decriminalise or even legalise cannabis use, particularly for medical purposes has helped."

He then called on the Government to act on a recommendation by a House of Lords Committee, to investigate whether cannabis should be either decriminalised or moved into a lower category of illegal drug.

Dr Iddon, who at the end of last year was elected to be Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Drugs Misuse Group, said he hoped the clinical trials would "prove conclusively that cannabis and the cannabinoids do have useful medical properties."

And he has put down a Commons Motion congratulating the Society on its move, and hoping that the trials will "demonstrate the drugs therapeutic effectiveness for the treatment of victims of multiple sclerosis, and the acute pain suffered by post tonsillectomy and abdominal surgery patients."

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