The Irish Times reports
The first legal medicinal cannabis product will be available to eligible patients from next month, but a specialist consultant has said he would not prescribe it due to the absence of a scientific evidence base for its efficacy.
CannEpil, a cannabis-based oral solution intended for drug-resistant epilepsy, is due to be accessible from mid-October as part of the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) Medicinal Cannabis Access Programme (MCAP). It has a high level of cannabidiol (CBD) and a low level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of cannabis, at a ratio between the two of 20:1.
Under the 1977 Misuse of Drugs Act any substance containing even trace levels of THC is a controlled drug. Only a medical consultant will be able to prescribe a cannabis-based product to a registered patient, who must have already exhausted all other treatment options, the Oireachtas health committee heard on Wednesday. As well as patients with severe and treatment-resistant epilepsy, the MCAP scheme is designed for people with spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis and chemotherapy patients suffering intractable nausea and vomiting.
However, consultant paediatric neurologist at Children’s University Hospital Temple Street Prof Bryan Lynch told the committee that there is “no evidence base” for benefits to epileptic patients from cannabis products that contain a THC component.
“For us clinicians looking after patients with epilepsy the evidence base is for pure CBD products,” he told the committee.
