United Kingdom - Politicians who fear big “Big pharma” companies in the drug industry and the taboo surrounding cannabis are blocking access to these important drugs for many people.
That the government allows some of the serious epilepsy and patients with multiple sclerosis to cannabidiol medicines to relieve their symptoms is good news. That is all that can be said. Again a decision comes from the caves of the British NHS that reveals the harm of a politicized, centralized, weakened health care system in the UK.
As it stands, any cannabis drug containing active THC as a pain reliever – much like medicinal marijuana for millions of people worldwide – remains banned. Medical cannabis is already available in many places around the world. It is possible in America by Donald Trump - where the president “supports 100% medical cannabis”.
British patients can cross the Channel and import (illegally). At home, it can be bought on almost any street corner to be consumed by allegedly 1,4 million Britons in pain. But British politicians like to play doctors. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has a general election to win. Pain from the people has to wait. He is in the grip of a cannabis taboo - and the big pharma companies.
Surely every parent of a sick child wants to use all the possibilities?
Every loving parent of an epileptic child knows what eases their pain. The idea that only a doctor with a prescription drug, clinically tested by a state regulator, can measure that the pain is obscene. How many heartbreaking anecdotes are needed for politicians to become aware of this? This is what happens when doctors are accountable to politicians who, in turn, have to respond to pharmaceutical companies with their vested interests in existing products.
When last year the then home secretary (note, not the health secretary), Sajid Javid, issued licenses for cannabis-based medicines for children in two frequently published issues, it seemed that progress was being made. But it just turned out to be a headline grabbing gesture. This path to development is now closed again.
A new welcome initiative from DrugScience
Hence the welcome, albeit desperate, DrugScience initiative last week, led by the neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt, to design a 20.000-person study of patient experience with medical cannabis.
It focuses on conditions that have been shown to be susceptible to the drug, not just epilepsy and MS, but chronic pain, anxiety, Tourette and post-traumatic stress.
As Nutt says, it is simply wrong for sick patients in Britain.go untreated, are in significant debt because of the cost of private prescriptions, or criminalized for being forced to turn to the black market".
But the ultimate curse is central control over the local experiment. The breakthrough in the US came when the federal government was told it could not interfere with a state's right to decide for itself. So on this issue of cannabis, why not lead Scotland to this freedom - free to then welcome Britain, its people and opportunities into the 21st century?
Read more on TheGuardian (EN)
