Pot aid for pets' pain in limbo

DEA classifies cannabidiols as illegal drug, stalls research

Marijuana extract products sit on display at a veterinary clinic in Bend, Ore. The effectiveness of such products to treat dogs’ joint pain and anxiety is unknown.
Marijuana extract products sit on display at a veterinary clinic in Bend, Ore. The effectiveness of such products to treat dogs’ joint pain and anxiety is unknown.

BEND, Ore. -- Dr. Byron Maas surveys a supply of marijuana products for dogs that lines a shelf in his veterinary clinic. The products are selling well.

"The Up and Moving is for joints and for pain," he explains. "The Calm and Quiet is for real anxious dogs, to take away that anxiety."

People eager to relieve suffering in their pets are increasingly turning to oils and powders that contain cannabidiols (CBDs), a nonpsychoactive component of marijuana. But there's little data on whether the products work, or if they have harmful side effects.

That's because Washington, D.C., has been standing in the way of clinical trials, veterinarians and researchers say. Now, a push is underway to have barriers removed so pets and people can benefit.

Those barriers have had more than just a chilling effect.

When the federal Drug Enforcement Administration announced last year that even marijuana extracts with cannabidiols and little or no tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- marijuana's intoxicating component -- are an illegal Schedule 1 drug, the University of Pennsylvania halted its clinical trials. Colorado State University is pushing ahead.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned companies that sell marijuana products online and at pet shops and animal hospitals that they're violating laws by offering "unapproved new animal drugs." The FDA threatened to take legal action.

But, seeing potential benefits of cannabidiols, the American Veterinary Medical Association's policymaking body said last summer that it wants the DEA to declassify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug "to facilitate research opportunities for veterinary and human medical uses." It asked the board of the national veterinarians organization to investigate working with other stakeholders toward that goal. The board is awaiting a recommendation from two group councils.

"The concern our membership has is worry about people extrapolating their own dosages, looking to medicate their pets outside the realm of the medical professional," board chairman Michael Whitehair said. "This is an important reason for us to continue the research."

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, became an unlikely champion of this push when he introduced a bill in September that would open the path for more clinical research. While Hatch said he opposes recreational marijuana use, he wants marijuana-based drugs, regulated by the FDA, to be available for people suffering from certain disorders.

"We lack the science to support use of medical marijuana products like CBD oils, not because researchers are unwilling to do the work, but because of bureaucratic red tape and overregulation," Hatch said.

Dawn Boothe of Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine is waiting for federal approval to begin a study of marijuana's effects on dogs that have epilepsy. The classification of marijuana products containing cannabidiols as a Schedule 1 drug, the same category as heroin and LSD, creates a "major, major, major, terrible roadblock" for researchers, Boothe said in a phone interview.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine were studying cannabidiols' effects on dogs that have osteoarthritis and pruritis, or itchiness, until the DEA released its policy statement.

"The ambiguity in this process has really brought us to a screeching halt," said Michael DiGregorio, director of the university's clinical trials center. "It is research that needs to be done because there are a lot of CBD products out there."

When it clarified that marijuana cannabidiol extracts are Schedule 1 drugs, the DEA said it was assigning a code number to those substances to better track them and to comply with international drug control treaties.

DiGregorio complained that researchers seeking federal approval to study cannabidiol products are told to provide certain data, but those data aren't normally available until the study is done.

"If you don't have the data, you can't get the registration to do the work," he said.

On a recent morning, Maas took a break from seeing four-legged patients in Bend Veterinary Clinic. With a stethoscope dangling from his neck over green scrubs, Maas said his clients have reported that cannabidiols help relieve pain, arthritis, anxiety, loss of appetite, epilepsy and inflammation in their pets.

"Unfortunately there's not a lot of research out there, especially on animals, on CBD compounds," Maas said. "The research is really necessary to help us understand how to actually use these compounds on our pets."

Veterinarian Janet Ladyga of Blue Sky Veterinary Clinic, also in Bend, said she doesn't recommend marijuana products because of the unknowns.

"We don't have a lot of evidence right now, so we don't know the toxicity or the safety profile ... and we don't have any good evidence to show either if it's safe or efficacious," she said.

The study at Colorado State University aims to provide some data. The roughly two dozen dogs in the arthritis study and the 30 in the epilepsy tests are given either cannabidiol oil or a placebo. For the arthritis study, activity monitors are attached to the animals' collars to determine if the animals are more mobile when they're taking cannabidiols.

Principal investigator Stephanie McGrath said she hopes the results will be a steppingstone for longer and more diverse studies, and that they provide useful information for human medicine.

"Every medication we're taking has been given to a dog first," the University of Pennsylvania's DiGregorio noted.

Meanwhile, Boothe said she has everything ready to start her study in January and is waiting for a green light from federal officials.

"I don't know what's taking so long," she said.

photo

AP

Dr. Byron Maas of the Bend Veterinary Clinic in Bend, Ore., says more research needs to be done on the effectiveness of marijuana-based products to treat joint pain in pets.

Business on 12/08/2017

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