UK DISCOURAGING MEDICAL CANNABIS FOR CHRONIC PAIN
The UK has recently recommended against medical cannabis being prescribed for chronic pain, recognising the poor results for medical cannabis as seen in the 2018 review of 104 journal studies of Chronic non-Cancer Pain (CNCP) comprising almost 9,958 patients.
The extensive review concluded, “It seems unlikely that cannabinoids are highly effective medicines for CNCP. . . . We also found minimal evidence that cannabinoids are effective in improving other important domains in people with CNCP such as emotional and physical functioning. Cannabinoids are unlikely to be a monotherapy for CNCP.”
Drug Free Australia has sent this information to the Federal Senate Inquiry looking into Australian access to medical cannabis. It has given evidence to the same Inquiry that recreational cannabis users in the US most commonly use the ruse of pain to legally access medical cannabis in those states where recreational use of cannabis has not been legalised but where medical cannabis is available. 90-94% of medical cannabis patients in various US states access medical cannabis for chronic pain.[iv] When profiles for regular chronic pain patients are compared to the profiles of US medical cannabis patients they are sharply different. A majority of chronic pain patients are women mostly in their 80s while men are in their 60s.[v] Medical cannabis chronic pain patients are 75% men with an average 32 years of age, mostly having commenced cannabis use as teenagers.[vi] This suggests that medical cannabis for most is just a cheap form of recreational use accessed by ruse. Doctors, of course, cannot objectively verify chronic pain, relying on a patient’s subjective descriptions. It appears that the majority of Australian applications to the TGA for access to medical cannabis are for pain, raising questions as to whether large numbers of Australians are using the same ruse here for ‘legalised’ use.
The UK population is more educated than Australians about the harms of cannabis use due to their televised media being willing to publicise scientific findings such as this Lancet study which found that 30% of all new London psychosis diagnoses were caused by high strength cannabis, with 50% for Amsterdam. This has led to the UK government taking a more cautious approach to medical cannabis dissemination.
Drug Free Australia also submitted evidence from enquiries made of a number of medical cannabis clinics in Sydney, asking whether there was difficulty getting TGA applications approved for rare and unusual conditions which medical cannabis might alleviate. Last year, Channel 7’s Sunday Night Program had urged governments to legalise the recreational use of cannabis in Australia on the grounds that certain medical conditions were unable to access medical cannabis. Both clinics agreed in September, the month after the Channel 7 program went to air, that there were no known impediments to the TGA approving such applications, particularly since Federal and State medical cannabis requirements had been rationalised and streamlined. It is evident that activists promoting legal recreational cannabis use are using misinformation about medical cannabis as their pathway to cannabis legalisation in this country.
Gary Christian
RESEARCH DIRECTOR
Drug Free Australia
0422 163 141
[iv] Arizona Department of Health Services (Apr. 14, 2011-Nov. 7, 2012) Arizona Medical Marijuana Act Monthly Report, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (Dec. 31, 2012) Medical Marijuana Registry Program Update, Oregon Health Authority (Oct. 1, 2014) “Oregon Medical Marijuana Program Statistics
[v] Blyth et al. “Chronic PainAustralia: A prevalence study” (Jan. 2001) Pain
[vi] https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1477-7517-4-16