Despite a change in the law last year, access to medical cannabis in the UK is not good enough, according to Prof David Nutt, Edmond J Safra professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London.
Writing in the BMJ, Prof Nutt says access to the treatment has been much slower than patients and parents had hoped. “Still only a tiny number of children with severe juvenile epilepsies are being treated, and many others continue to have multiple seizures because neurologists will not prescribe,” he says.
There are several likely reasons for this, the professor says. One is ignorance of the value of cannabis medicines, because few doctors have any training or experience in this area and are fearful of prescribing them off-licence. Another reason for resistance could be that parents and patients lead this initiative rather than the medical profession, he says. Some doctors fear that medical cannabis will lead to severe adverse effects such as psychosis, and others are concerned it will lead to recreational use. All medical cannabis available in the UK is currently produced in the Netherlands and Canada, which creates challenges around supply.
“We must hope the situation will soon improve,”
He suggests a way forward would be to use the cancer research model, where small expert groups are set up aligned to a specific indication, such as Tourette’s syndrome or adult epilepsy. Studies for different indications could be conducted using the same form and strength of medical cannabis and all collecting data on outcomes and adverse effects in the same way.
Prof Nutt is inviting those interested in the proposal to contact him.
