Cannabis offers hope to Alzheimer's sufferers

London, Mar 11 (UNI) Cannabis can be used to improve memory loss in patients of Alzheimer's disease, scientists claim.

Cannabidiol, one of the 400 compounds in the drug, can significantly slow memory problems caused by the disease and it is not a hallucinogenic ingredient.

Scientists have called for human trials to be funded after researchers from Israel and Spain successfully conducted tests in mice.

Speaking at a symposium of cannabis experts hosted by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in London, Dr Clive Ballard of the Alzheimer's Society said, ''We need robust clinical trials into the potential benefits of non-psychoactive components of cannabis.'' ''It is important for people to note that these treatments are not the same as recreational cannabis use, which can be potentially harmful,'' the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

However, another researcher Professor Raphael Mechoulam from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who found that symptoms of type 1 diabetes can also be helped by cannabidiol, warned against the use of cannabis by Alzheimer's patients because the psychoactive ingredient THC could have damaging effects on memory.

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