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This article was published 13/8/2009 (4065 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MARIJUANA'S painkilling properties are being called into question by new research that suggests the drug can amplify and prolong pain rather than relieve it.

A study published in the current issue of Science suggests prescribing marijuana for pain relief, which is legal in a number of countries including Canada, may be counter-productive.

Experiments with rodents and humans found that a group of compounds that includes cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana, can interfere with the body's mechanisms to stop pain signals from reaching the brain.

"If you had a toothache, you probably wouldn't want to treat it with marijuana, because you could actually make it worse," said University of Texas Prof. Volker Neugebauer, one of the study's authors.

-- Canwest News Service