Renowned Jamaican scientist Manley West is dead

Professor Emeritus Manley West, one of  the Jamaican scientists who created Canasol, the glaucoma drug derived from marijuana, died on Tuesday april 24

Born in Portland, Manley West attended the Titchfield High School.

He graduated from the University of  London, England in 1967 with a Doctor of  Philosophy in Pharmacology.

His career at the University of  the West Indies began as Assistant Lecturer in Pharmacology in 1964, from which position he was promoted to Lecturer and Internal Examiner in Pharmacology in 1968.

In 1975, Dr. West served, as Acting Head of  the Department of  Pharmacology.

In the same year was appointed Head of  the Department of  Pharmacology and Chief  Internal Examiner.

He was appointed Professor of  Pharmacology in 1981.

In 1985, Professor West along with Dr. Albert Lockhart received national and international acclaim, for their development of  Canasol.

Both were awarded the Order of  Merit from the Jamaican Government in 1987.

Professor West was also awarded the Gold Musgrave medal from the Institute of  Jamaica for his pioneering work with the drug.

In 2001, Professor West, and Dr. Lockhart introduced a cannabis-derived medication called Cantimol to treat the potentially debilitating condition of glaucoma.

It was the world's first combination of an alpha agonist and a bet blocker (two types of drugs) in one bottle for the treatment of this disease.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also conferred on him the Bio-Diversity Gold medal for the conversion of  a plant compound to medicine, and he was awarded the Legacy of  Honour, for the Caribbean for his contribution to mankind.