Dr. Lorraine Nolan:

To support comments made by Dr. Devlin in response to Senator Burke, an issue associated with this access programme will be the system of implementation and the supports put in place for implementation. The Department will be taking the lead on that role. Supporting the clinical community and patients will be important when setting up this access programme. That comes from many perspectives. Explaining the availability of products and how to report side effects as Dr. Breslin has outlined are important matters, even at that simple level. With regard to setting this up, we have come from a situation where we have had very restricted access and are working off a licensing provision. The support and education of both clinicians and patients will be important in moving forward with the access programme.

With regard to progressing the situation and medical thinking, I do not want to undermine what Dr. Devlin said, that the relationship between a patient and clinician is sacrosanct and should not be interfered with. That is where clinical expertise and judgement should come from. However, increasing knowledge and awareness of where scientific evidence is, what products are available and how this can be used in a treatment programme are important and will be vital for the implementation.

How would Dr. Nolan deal with a situation where every mechanism has been used for treatment of a patient and the only thing left is the use of a cannabis-based product, but the medical practitioner is not prepared to come on board? How does one deal with a person like that who has difficulty in identifying a medical practitioner to assist him or her?