UK: Medicinal cannabis on prescription

[rvallee]

I find that quite hard to believe. Is it really the case?
I have been aware of research into cannabis derivatives for things like nausea over a period of about 40 years.

And since all the medical students were regularly researching it at the weekend and not reporting any particular effects on pain I am more tempted to think it does not work.

Yes, there was a total ban on all medical research on cannabis until very recently, scheduled by the FDA as having no medical benefits, therefore no research allowed. Still in effect at the federal level in the US, which means enforced in most countries. Technically still illegal, it's just not always enforced. Most countries still do not allow any research at all, explicitly forbidden under threat of significant sanctions from the US government. There has been exactly one federal research project a few decades ago and it was ended.

There are hundreds of cannabis strains, recreational cannabis is not at all a good comparison. It can't be compared to a single chemical substance like alcohol or cocaine, there are hundreds of chemical compounds involved. Almost all the research has been done in secret, like how some specific strains were discovered to help with some forms of epilepsy, no research lab was involved in this, all illegal.

And I don't understand this argument. If the research is poor and we do not have reliable evidence then the question remains surely - by definition?

I mean pain research in general is very poor, it can "show evidence" that singing to yourself is good, or whatever is popular these days. Most of it is just uninterpretable so not much surprise that what little research on cannabis would be poor as well, it all is. In addition to having been forbidden for decades, of course. That doesn't help.

There is no evidence in research that ME is a relapsing-remitting illness. And yet it is. That scientific research doesn't show it doesn't mean much, frankly, if the right questions aren't asked.

 

[Wonko]

Google suggests that in the UK the first cannabis farm, commissioned/licensed to grow the stuff for research purposes, opened in 2019 - implying that no UK research was possible/allowed until then.

This is at variance from my recollection, but not by much, I was under the impression that it was a few years earlier, but only a few, near a road I cycled down, several decades before, on my way to work each morning - which is why I noted it when I saw it on the news at the time.

But google suggests I am wrong, that it was 2019.

 

[James Morris-Lent]

There's no need for marijuana-pain research to be bad. I think there is a funding dynamic where it is enough to simply 'show' over and over that it is 'promising' or whatever for a million different conditions.

If people are serious about actually producing convincing studies I don't see why it would be so hard.

Also it should just be legal otc anyway.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

According to PubMed papers on cannabis alkaloids (several thousand in total) have been coming out since 1967 with a peak 1967-77 and then a linear rise since 2003. Medical cannabis has been legally available in Holland since 2003. I doubt that regulations in the US have much to do with policy elsewhere which I strongly suspect reflects experience in the pharmaceutical industry from earlier years that not much was to be found.

 

[Mithriel]

Google suggests that in the UK the first cannabis farm, commissioned/licensed to grow the stuff for research purposes, opened in 2019 - implying that no UK research was possible/allowed until then.

This is at variance from my recollection, but not by much, I was under the impression that it was a few years earlier, but only a few, near a road I cycled down, several decades before, on my way to work each morning - which is why I noted it when I saw it on the news at the time.

But google suggests I am wrong, that it was 2019.

The MS research I know about was at least 2014. I am not good with time, but one of my friends who had to withdraw because of side effects died a good few years ago.

 

[rvallee]

Google suggests that in the UK the first cannabis farm, commissioned/licensed to grow the stuff for research purposes, opened in 2019 - implying that no UK research was possible/allowed until then.

This is at variance from my recollection, but not by much, I was under the impression that it was a few years earlier, but only a few, near a road I cycled down, several decades before, on my way to work each morning - which is why I noted it when I saw it on the news at the time.

But google suggests I am wrong, that it was 2019.

I think it was mostly synthetic cannabinoids.

And good timing because that's about to change. Basically the way it works is the DEA sets drug classification, including on medical potential, and the FDA complies. Cannabis is still in the class with no medical potential, while opioids and cocaine are in the lower class where access is restricted but professional use is permitted.

https://www.dea.gov/stories/2021/20...tize-efforts-expand-access-marijuana-research

I don't know what's the status in Canada since legalization, haven't heard much yet. There is still a lot of Reefer madness nonsense putting in obstacles. Medical research has two speeds: warp and none.

 

[rvallee]

According to PubMed papers on cannabis alkaloids (several thousand in total) have been coming out since 1967 with a peak 1967-77 and then a linear rise since 2003. Medical cannabis has been legally available in Holland since 2003. I doubt that regulations in the US have much to do with policy elsewhere which I strongly suspect reflects experience in the pharmaceutical industry from earlier years that not much was to be found.

Most governments comply with US drug policy, it's really crippled research in many areas and has been a foundation of geopolitics since Nixon. There are many good documentaries on the war on drugs, it's illuminating, a study in human folly that rivals medicine's mishandling of chronic illness, amplifying all the harms, achieving absolutely nothing and creating entirely new problems.

But most of the research on compounds so far has focused on synthetic cannabinoids because otherwise a drug can't be patented if it uses a product taken directly from a plant without transformation. The pharma industry isn't really interested because of this, synthetics don't work the same yet. Combined with the zealotry of the anti-drug crusades, there really hasn't been much serious research yet.

Perhaps the only real evidence is the dramatic drop in opioid usage and overdoses in areas that legalized cannabis. Those are real numbers. But it's still just raw data until someone actually does the hard work.