I want to write to Earl Howe
Earl Howe: No assessment has been made by the Government of the potential medicinal benefits of cannabis. Cannabis in its raw form is not authorised as a medicinal product in the United Kingdom. Sativex Oromucosal Spray, which contains extracts of cannabis (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol as the major active components), is the only medicine produced from the cannabis plant that is approved...
Earl Howe: ...interventions are designed to treat drug misuse and help drug misusers achieve specific treatment goals. They are the mainstay of treatment for the misuse of cocaine and other stimulants, and for cannabis and hallucinogens. People receive prescribing and psychosocial interventions in different settings, and these are recorded by the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) as; -...
Earl Howe: Information on the health harms of a range of licit and illicit substances commonly used in the United Kingdom, including tobacco, cocaine and cannabis, is contained in the document published by the department in August 2011: A Summary of the Health Harms of Drugs: A Guide to the Risks and Harms Associated with Substance Misuse. A copy of this document has already been placed in the Library.
Earl Howe: My Lords, the noble Lord will know that a drug called Sativex was recently licensed, which is derived from an extract of cannabis, as he will be aware. Having said that, I believe that NICE has issued no guidance to the NHS on the use of Sativex, so it is for local primary care trusts to make funding decisions based on an assessment of the available evidence and on the basis of the patient's...
Earl Howe: ...but certainly it reflected his frustration that the strategy failed to get to grips with alcohol misuse as well as the underlying causes of it. Unfortunately, as with the Government's policy on cannabis, the message on alcohol has sometimes been mixed. The alcohol harm reduction strategy of 2004 followed hard on the heels of the relaxation of the licensing laws. The Government strongly...
Earl Howe: ...up cocaine, they may be turning away from drugs such as ecstasy, LSD and amphetamines. Against that background, how strange it was last autumn to find Ministers proposing the reclassification of cannabis under the terms of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 from Class B to Class C. The Home Secretary justified that proposal, in part, by saying that it would make sense to those responsible for...
Earl Howe: ...Whitehall at the moment. What government, serious about the health risks of smoking, would, within a few weeks of dropping this Bill, announce a weakening of the legal sanctions for possession of cannabis--a substance, as we have heard from the noble Lord, Lord Monson, that when smoked is even more carcinogenic than tobacco? What sort of government, having decided to increase total health...