Attention Chronic back pain sufferers. Toss out those heating pads, ergonomic chairs, and gas station CBD products that might be more sugar than weed.
The AP reports on a new cannabis-based drug, VER-01, that has just delivered some pretty compelling results in a large clinical trial. It’s not your typical stoner fuel masquerading as a painkiller. It’s pharma-grade, science-backed, and… boring? But, like, in a good way.
Developed by German pharmaceutical company Vertanical (hence the VER in VER-01), it just passed a Phase III clinical trial involving over 800 people with chronic low back pain. The participants who took VER-01 daily for 12 weeks experienced more pain relief than those on a placebo.
The results were 1.9 points lower on the standard 11-point pain scale versus 1.4 points for the sugar pill crowd. Not life-changing, but if you’ve ever had chronic back pain, you’ll take that extra 0.5 over the excruciating pain.
New Weed Pill Might Actually Kill Your Back Pain Without Getting You High
The benefits didn’t end there. The people taking VER-01 also slept better, moved more easily, and didn’t show signs of addiction or withdrawal. That last part is maybe the most impressive. Reduced pain while not having to turn to highly addictive, potentially life-ruining opioids.
Cannabis has its cultural stigmas, but one thing that’s for sure is that it doesn’t come with a set of horrifying side effects.
According to the researchers, what sets VER-01 apart from your everyday weed cure is that, while it does contain THC, it only has about five percent. Compare that to your average, brain-blasting recreational strains that have 15 percent or more, and you’re going to be getting pain relief but not high—unless you have a super low tolerance.
Vertanical is already seeking drug approval in Europe and the UK and is in talks with the U.S. FDA to bring VER-01 to the U.S. stateside. So keep your heating pad and giant bottle of ibuprofen handy until you can snatch up a bottle of weed-based painkiller pills sometime in the near future.
The post This New Weed Pill Could Kill Your Back Pain Without the High appeared first on VICE.
