Dr David Potter of GW Pharmaceuticals surrounded by 30,000 cannabis plants at an undisclosed location in the UK. Photograph: Peter Smith
In an enormous glasshouse a few hours from London, there’s a powerful, unmistakable smell in the air: it’s the one that seems to cling to some surly teenagers and drifts around on the breeze at pop festivals. Here, 30,000 cannabis plants sway gently beneath giant fans and immensely bright lights. Only the remarkable uniformity of the plants – and the people walking round in lab coats – tells you the place isn’t some drug lord’s illicit cannabis factory.
This is the only research facility in the UK licensed to grow cannabis on a vast commercial scale. Here, Dr David Potter has overseen the production of nearly 2m cannabis plants, mostly for medical research or the production of the cannabis-based multiple sclerosis drug Sativex. He is director of botany and cultivation for GW Pharmaceuticals, a company that is exploring how cannabis could help treat a range of illnesses ranging from epilepsy to cancer.
Recently Potter and GW’s team have turned their attention to developing a cannabis-based treatment for psychosis and related illnesses such as schizophrenia. For a drug that is widely seen as a trigger for acute psychotic illness in young users, this at first sounds preposterous. But, as Potter explains, the cannabis plant is much more than just a psychedelic weed.
“The most well-known ingredient in cannabis that gets people high is THC [or tetrahydrocannabinol],” says Potter, who often travels to give talks in London carrying a suspicious-smelling suitcase of the plants. “But THC is just one of dozens of potentially useful cannabinoids in the plant.”
Continue reading: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/16/new-strain-cannabis-treat-psychosis-schizophrenia-gw-pharmaceuticals-david-potter?CMP=share_btn_fb
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