FDA approves clinical trials of marijuana

This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on November 3, 2013.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved clinical trials for “Epidiolex,” a CBD-based tincture. The agency acknowledged cannabidiol’s (CBD) medical potential and healing powers.

The medicinal benefits of CBD has gone viral thanks to medical marijuana’s latest ally, Dr.Sanjay Gupta. Since Gupta’s CNN episode highlighted CBD as a healing agent for children with seizures, public opinion of cannabis has grown significantly.

FDA press release:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved clinical trials of a cannabis-based drug and its effects on epilepsy. The treatment, Epidiolex, is 98 percent purified cannabidiol ( CBD ) made by GW Pharmaceuticals based out of the U.K.

There are around 60 known chemicals contained in cannabis called cannabinoids. Tetrahydrocannabinol, also known as THC, is the main component responsible for the drug’s psychoactive nature. CBD, however, is the second most abundant cannabinoid in the cannabis and provides medicinal benefits without the “high.” Epidiolex will come in a viscous liquid form to be dispensed from syringes. A 25 milligram per meter or 100 milligram per meter will be the two strengths made available to those in the trials.

The FDA has approved of intermediate-sized clinical trials sponsored by two doctors. Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a professor in the Department of Neurology, Neuroscience and Psychiatry in the New York University School of Medicine and director of the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and Dr. Roberta Cilio, a pediatric neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, are set to follow 25 patients using Epidiolex as treatment for pediatric epilepsy.