The Swiss postal system, in collaboration with California-based drone delivery company Matternet, announced this week that they’re testing a new package delivery service that uses drones as couriers. Switzerlands diverse terrain, full of mountains, lakes, rivers, and other environments easier to navigate by air, make it an ideal test site for flying robot mail delivery.

The current issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) includes two articles that review studies of marijuana's medical utility and come to similar conclusions about the applications that are best supported by the existing evidence: treatment of chronic pain, neuropathic pain and spasticity.

There is also substantial evidence that THC, marijuana's main active ingredient, is effective at relieving nausea and restoring appetite.

When pure and administered carefully, [cannabis] is one of the most valuable medicines we possess,” wrote British physician John Russell Reynolds in 1890, praising the substance’s curative properties. He even prescribed it in the form of a natural tincture for his most illustrious patient, Queen Victoria.

Over a century later, cannabis, also known as hemp or marijuana, is on the list of banned substances worldwide due to its psychotropic effects. A devastating and dangerous drug for some, a medicine without equal in the pharmacist’s repertoire for others, cannabis is beginning to be used again in the treatment of serious illness and chronic pain.

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Penny F. Whiting, PhD
School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol
The National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West at University Hospitals, Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, Bristol UK
Kleijnen Systematic Reviews Ltd, Escrick, York, United Kingdom

MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Cannabis can alleviate chronic pain caused for example by cancer and muscle cramps from multiple sclerosis, according to an international study financed by the Federal Office of Public Health. 

The office said it would bear in mind the medical benefits of the drug – consumption of which is banned in Switzerland – when granting special exemptions. 

It said on Monday that in order to be able to make these exceptions in a more target-oriented way, it had commissioned a systematic review of the positive and negative effects of the medical use of cannabis. 

Chemist Markus Lüdi is Switzerland’s only producer of a natural tincture made from cannabis. In his laboratory in Burgdorf in canton Bern he demonstrates how a liquid drug can be produced from cannabis flowers. 

The cannabis contains around 5% THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychotropic substance of the plant with therapeutic properties.

Since cannabis was effectively decriminalised two years ago, drug cultivation in Switzerland has soared. The country’s drug laws have swung between permissiveness and conservatism over the last two decades and the result is an ambiguous situation where possession of certain drugs – such as cannabis – is semi-decriminalised.

Of the many active ingredients in cannabis, cannabinoids — the miracle molecules that deliver most of the medical efficacy of marijuana — aren’t the whole picture. Some cannabis consumers may be aware of terpenes, the cannabinoid-like chemicals that give herb such a pungent smell. What most don’t know is that terpenes also deliver therapeutic relief, just like their cousins the cannabinoids.

Geneva prosecutor agrees to close investigation into HSBC in return for the financial settlement

HSBC has been ordered to pay a record 40m Swiss francs (£28m) and been given a final warning by the Geneva authorities for “organisational deficiencies” which allowed money laundering to take place in the bank’s Swiss subsidiary.

The settlement means the Swiss will not prosecute HSBC or publish the findings of their investigation into alleged aggravated money laundering. But Geneva’s chief prosecutor, Olivier Jornot, cautioned that the bank was on notice, saying: “This is an excuse which will only apply once.”

The National Drug Council accepted a motion Tuesday to allow a drug made from cannabis flowers to relieve pain for people with certain diseases.

Switzerland could allow a drug made from cannabis flowers (cannabis flos) to relieve pain for people with multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS among others.

By 123 votes against 39, the National Council accepted the Tuesday, June 2  motion of Margrit Kessler (PVL / SG) requesting to study the issue.

In Switzerland, people suffering from chronic pain often prefer to obtain cannabis illegally as licensed therapies are expensive and complicated to obtain, stressed the Vert'libérale.