A professor at N.C. State wants to research medical marijuana for pets, saying such studies could have profound implications for humans.

Dr. Duncan Lascelles, a professor of surgery and pain management at N.C. State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said it’s time to move forward with researching marijuana as a pain reliever. 

About 15 years ago it became clear from scientific research that the body houses so-called cannabinoid receptors. In mammals, these receptors react to marijuana and another substance produced by mammals called an endocannabinoid, which is part of the body’s natural system for relieving pain.

“It makes sense that the body would have cannabinoid receptors and that in nature there are plants that produce substances that interact with these receptors,” Lascelles said. “It’s a system which, given that it’s endogenous [produced from an organ] and it’s partly responsible for pain relief in normal mammals … [it] would be a neat system to look at and try and exploit.”

However, negative American views toward marijuana and tight federal restrictions made it too difficult for anyone to go through with such a study fifteen years ago.

“At the time I decided not to try and go down that route,” Lascelles said. 

But Lascelles said the idea never left his radar and 52 percent of Americans now support the legalization of Marijuana, according to a 2013 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, compared to 27 percent in support of legalization in 1998. 

“I’ve been watching, with interest, the changes over the last few years with the more widespread acceptance of marijuana as a medicinal product under certain circumstances,” Lascelles said. 

“Whether that would involve giving cannabis to animals in some form or whether it would be using some of the drugs that have been developed to interact with this system, I don’t know.”

Lascelles said there are two important factors that go into pharmaceutical therapy: efficacy and side effects.

“I think it may be tempting for some people to think ‘Great, I’ll just get some medical marijuana for my dog,’” Lascelles said. “On the other side of the coin, really we should only be giving something to our pets if we know it’s going to help them or we feel certain it’s going to help them.”

A process to sort out side effects includes everything from psychotic side effects to physical side effects such as wobbliness and drowsiness. In animals, these can take years to find.

“You can see exponentially there are more and more variables that need to be figured out,” Lascelles said. “Actually, I think it’s pretty bad that there are a number of veterinarians that are giving a variety of different products by a variety of different roots without any bases behind it at all.”

Lascelles said the field of veterinary pain management theory has a long way to go. 

“As soon as we, as veterinarians, take on the role of recommending or dispensing something, it’s incumbent on us to make sure that we’re making the very best recommendations,” Lascelles said. “It’s still in the very early stages.”

Lascelles said another level of complexity is the fact that even after the appropriate extract, drug, root and dose are identified, the problem remains that not all pain syndromes are alike.

“It may be that for pancreatic pain the endocannabinoid system is a good one to interact with, but maybe for osteoarthritis it’s not a good system to interact with,” Lascelles said.

Lascelles expressed great interest in the possible benefits such pain studies might ultimately hold for humans.

“[Human implication through animal studies] is a huge interest of mine,” Lascelles said. “What generally happens in the development of therapies for humans, particularly when we’re taking about drugs, is a model created in the rodent.”

The model of a rodent with arthritis doesn’t look similar to naturally occurring arthritis in people, whereas arthritis in dogs or cats is very similar to arthritis in humans.

“They are two very different things, and yet it’s that rodent model on which we base all prediction on, whether or not a drug or plant extract is going to be beneficial,” Lascelles said. “I think what we should be making use of is naturally occurring painful disease in animals, in dogs and cats.”

Lascelles said pharmaceutical companies have historically pressured researchers at all levels in his field to get results quickly. He said that approach has prompted many researchers to abandon potentially promising lines of research prematurely.

Lascelles said he does not have an issue with medical marijuana from a political standpoint. 

“I think many of the rules and regulations across the U.S. are far too draconian,” he said. “I don’t understand that. Maybe it’s just coming from Europe.”

Lascelles said his only worry would be if people started administering medical marijuana to animals without the necessary background information.

“Of course animals aren’t making that free choice; we’re making the choice for them,” Lascelles said. “It’s incumbent upon us to have all that knowledge to make the right choice for them.”