Baroness Meacher: I thank the Minister for her reply. She will be aware that only about four people have received a prescription for medical cannabis since it became legal on 1 November last year. Doctors have had no training in prescribing cannabis. They need to know the contents, dosages, side-effects and everything else about medical cannabis products. The pressure on doctors with desperate patients whose...
Ian Lavery: I rise to present my petition on cannabis oil for medical use. The inspiration for it has been an incredibly engaging online petition started by my constituent, Paul Keeney. It was started by Paul from his hospital bed during his ongoing battle with an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer. His petition calls for cannabis oil to be used medically and legally in the UK, and has to this...
Baroness Meacher: My Lords, from 1 November 2018 consultants have been able to prescribe medical cannabis as an unlicensed medicine, as the Minister implies, yet NHS doctors remain unwilling to prescribe, partly because medical cannabis remains on the list of controlled drugs. Hundreds of thousands of patients with severe and chronic conditions who find that cannabis is the only medicine that controls their...
Jeff Smith: ...right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That points to the issue about where we get the product from. The problems, allegedly linked to increased episodes of psychosis, are from high-THC street cannabis, which is not what we mean when we talk about medical cannabis products. As I said, there are lots of different types of cannabis products. They are very often CBD-based, but when they...
Baroness Meacher: ...I will focus on a health issue that could save the NHS billions of pounds and precious consultant time and which, in my view, should have been included in the Queen’s Speech. On 1 November 2018 medical cannabis was rescheduled and recognised as a medicine for the first time in 50 years, having been used as a medicine for thousands of years before then. However, the job to make medical...
Paul Monaghan: I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the debate, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn) on securing it. A debate about the regulation of cannabis to reduce harm is welcome. I will immediately declare an interest. For many years, I have had the privilege of being the director of the Inverness Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre. Cannabis has brought some...
Jeff Smith: ...a significant number where lives have been transformed by this medicine. There is frustration that people cannot get it as they should. When the Government passed the Misuse of Drugs (Amendments) (Cannabis and Licence Fees) (England, Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2018, which moved cannabis from schedule 1 to schedule 2, it became legal for clinicians on the specialist register to...
Ronnie Cowan: The Government granted a licence to British Sugar to grow cannabis on an industrial scale and licensed medical cannabis produced by GW Pharmaceuticals. They have now stalled, proposing that a panel should decide on a one-by-one basis who can benefit from medical cannabis. I am wondering what will happen on day one when 20,000 people apply to that panel. Can the Government not see the writing...
Lord Field of Birkenhead: Moved by Lord Field of Birkenhead 15: After Clause 6, insert the following new Clause—“Entitlement of a doctor to prescribe medicinal cannabis productsThe appropriate authority must by regulations make provision to—(a) grant authorisation to place on the market of the United Kingdom high quality, standardised medicinal cannabis products for prescription by a...
Lord Walton of Detchant: Is the Minister aware that, in 2000, your Lordships’ Select Committee on Science and Technology, of which I was then a member, conducted a major investigation into the potential medical benefits of cannabis preparations and cannabis itself. We were satisfied that smoking cannabis was just as dangerous in causing cancer as smoking tobacco, if not more so. Nevertheless, we received...
Motion NDM6565 Mark Isherwood, Leanne Wood, Mike Hedges, Rhun ap Iorwerth To propose that the National Assembly for Wales: 1. Recognises that there is clinical evidence of the effectiveness of cannabis for medicinal purposes. 2. Recognises that, whilst Wales is the only nation in the UK where the cannabinoid symptom management drug Sativex is available on the NHS, it is only licensed for...
Lord Rosser: ..., Alfie Dingley and others like them, and for their parents, who, as the Statement says, have been under unimaginable stress and strain. With yesterday’s Urgent Question in the other place on the medical use of a cannabis-based medicine uprated to today’s Statement on drugs licensing, this appears to be another example of the Government making decisions on the hoof, in a flap and in...
Lord Howarth of Newport: ...of Health. It is excellent that the two departments are represented on the Front Bench for this important debate. The noble Lords, Lord Rea and Lord Ribeiro, spoke with all the authority of their medical expertise, and the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, spoke with the authority that comes from his own unfortunate experience. I follow the noble Baronesses, Lady Hamwee and Lady Meacher, in...
Baroness Masham of Ilton: My Lords, when cannabis was changed from class B to C I said that it was an unwise thing to do; and cannabis was strong even then. Many people start drug-taking by taking cannabis. It was also a confusing message, especially to the police, as the noble Lord, Lord Mackenzie, said. There is much evidence that cannabis can cause serious and dangerous problems for people with mental health...
Dawn Primarolo: The Department continues, through campaigns such as Frank, to make the public aware of the health harms associated with cannabis use. In July 2007, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) were asked by the Home Secretary to reassess the medical and social scientific basis of the classification of cannabis in the light of real public concern about the potential mental health effects...
Jeff Smith: I welcome this first step from the Government, but the Minister has just said that the Government recognise the medical benefits of cannabis, so the question is: why on earth is cannabis still a controlled drug under schedule 1, which is for drugs with no medical benefit? It is time for an urgent rescheduling of cannabis, which would make life easier for the Government and for patients.
David Mundell: I beg to move, That this House has considered the economic contribution of medicinal cannabis. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allocating this debate. This slot on a Thursday afternoon is a challenge for many Members to attend because they have constituency commitments on a Thursday afternoon, but I am confident that...
Lord Howarth of Newport: My Lords, I hope indeed that, as the amendment proposes, the Government will consult in the relatively near future with the ACMD about the desirability of rescheduling cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 to facilitate the use of cannabis-based medications. I draw great encouragement from the fact that the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, has added her name to the amendment. She is an...
Ronnie Cowan: There are families across the United Kingdom who have children suffering from epilepsy. Many have found that medical cannabis is a great help, but they have been driven either to act unlawfully or to pay huge sums of money to gain access to medical cannabis. The Secretary of State for Health stated on 19 March that in several months’ time it will be made available. End Our Pain wrote to the...
Alberto Costa: I am not sure, but I doubt that our constituents would have to put their hands in their pockets to the tune of £2,000 a month to pay for any other medication that was extremely important for their severely ill children. My constituents, and indeed all Members’ constituents who have children in this situation, should not have to pay for this medication themselves. Medical cannabis has had...