In November 2018 the UK made cannabis-based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) legal.
20 months on and doctors seem uninterested in prescribing them, say researchers.
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) want this to change.
Hundreds of thousands of UK patients are self-medicating with illegal cannabis-based products because medical and pharmacy professions are not prescribing the legal ones - few NHS prescriptions have been issued
It is estimated that 1.4 million medical cannabis users source their cannabis products from the black market, risking the Russian roulette common with illegality - unknown quality, and where and how the cannabis was grown and processed
The Imperial College London, London School of Economics and Drug Science (formerly known as the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs), asks, why does the UK lag behind so many other countries that have legalized medical cannabis?
They found barriers to prescribing that need to be overcome in order to improve patient access to legal medical cannabis in the UK.
The government insistence that medical cannabis be considered a “special’ product, is the likely barrier to doctors prescribing it.
It means the doctor is responsible for any harm caused by the medical cannabis product - responsibility is with the manufacturer for other medical products – Why the discrimination between legal medical products ?
It means thousands of UK patients are self-medicating with non-regulated illegal cannabis products when international evidence show these products offer advanced legal treatment.
They can save the NHS money in reduced hospital admissions and reduce treatments with powerful chemical opioid drugs.
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) conclude: “The failure of the medical and pharmacy professions to prescribe legal cannabis products for medicinal use (CBPMs),after they were made ‘legal’ over 18 months ago, is a great concern, and may, they say, have led to preventable deaths from conditions such as epilepsy.
Article Condensed by @ijavee
Link to article in full -
https://scitechdaily.com/medical-experts-it-is-time-to-embrace-cannabis-for-medicinal-use/
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https://yourfuturebythefuturist.blogspot.com/
Meanwhile - plant scientists continue to research and cultivate Cannabis Hemp - a sister cannabis plant - to have all the natural medicinal properties of cannabis but with nil to negligible THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol ) the cannabis plant compound that inebriates
