Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LONDON, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Britain is looking for volunteers to test marijuana as a painkiller after surgery, a newspaper reported Thursday. The tests will be conducted in 36 hospitals in Britain in the hope of measuring the effects of cannabis plant extract against other pain-relieving drugs given after operations, the Glasgow Herald reported. Advertisement The Medical Research Council aims to recruit 400 surgical patients for the trials. Each volunteer, who must be over 18, will be randomly assigned to one of four oral pain-relieving treatments containing either standardized cannabis extract, tetrahydrocannabinol (an active ingredient in cannabis), a standard pain-relieving drug or a placebo. The drug will be administered via capsule containing a prescribed dose. Pain relief and side-effects will be assessed over a six-hour period. Patients will be able to request additional pain relief at any time during the study.
