Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Two of my questions were not answered at all. Why has pain been left out? Can Dr. Nolan respond to the points made by Professor Finn that I read to her? I want to stress this, particularly after Dr. Breslin's intervention. Professor Finn said that the long list of adverse side effects of recreational cannabis use have very little to do with what we are discussing here, which is about medicinal use. Is it not the case, as alluded to by Professor Finn, that we have a whole range of authorised drugs at the moment where the adverse side effects - there is strong evidence of this - are as bad as, or in many cases much worse than, any evidence we have for adverse effects from medicinal cannabis?

OxyContin opiate, known as hillbilly heroin, is widely prescribed as an end-of-the-line painkiller. It is authorised and is highly addictive. Benzedrine and Prozac are highly addictive and there is much evidence of adverse effects. Their efficacy is questionable and it is certainly a debatable issue, but they are authorised. There is a much lower bar for how they can be prescribed and who can prescribe them. A general practitioner can prescribe those things, so why and on what basis have we decided that only a consultant can prescribe cannabis for medicinal use? A GP is a registered specialist so why can a GP not prescribe cannabis? None of these things is being explained.

A view is being put here but we are not hearing the counter view. We need to hear the counter view as expressed by Professor Finn, Professor Barnes and many other eminent people. No doubt people from the Netherlands, Italy and the Czech Republic would come in here and give a pretty different perspective on all this. That needs to be acknowledged in any debate. That is not to say who is right or wrong. People have their opinions but what we are getting here are opinions, not definitive positions. Nobody can claim to have the absolutely correct position because there are diverse opinions across the medical area and in how states deal with this by way of legislation or regulation. That needs to be acknowledged.

Perhaps Dr. Nolan could deal with the specific issue of pain, given the points that Professor Finn has made.