Mr. Eugene Lennon:

I am a principal officer in the medicines and controlled drugs unit in the Department of Health. I am joined by my colleagues, Ms Marie Egan, a pharmacist in the medicines and controlled drugs unit; Dr. John Devlin, deputy chief medical officer; and Dr. Ronan Glynn, specialist registrar in public health medicine.

Members of the committee will know that cannabis is a Schedule 1 controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act and the most widely used illegal drug in Ireland. It is worth remembering that it is not currently an authorised medicine and has not gone through the normal regulatory procedures for medicines which are designed to protect patients and ensure treatments are supported by good evidence of their effectiveness and safety. However, the Department is aware that some patients believe cannabis should be a treatment option for their medical condition. It is also aware that a number of countries have changed the law or introduced programmes to allow access, under strict conditions, for certain groups of patients.

Against this background, on 3 November 2016 the Minister for Health announced a review of policy on cannabis for medical use. He requested the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, to provide him with expert advice. On 10 February he published the HPRA’s report, Cannabis for Medical Use - A Scientific Review, and announced that he would establish an access programme for standardised cannabis-based treatments for the following conditions: spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, resistant to all standard therapies and interventions; intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, despite the use of standard anti-emetic regimes; and severe, refractory treatment resistant epilepsy that has failed to respond to standard anticonvulsant medications. The Minister has thanked the HPRA and the members of the expert review group for their work on the report which he has described as a milestone in the development of policy on medicinal cannabis.

Patients accessing cannabis under the programme will be required to be under the care of a medical consultant. Officials will consult stakeholders on how the access programme will operate. It will be important to engage with the clinical community in the development of a framework to operationalise the access programme for the implementation of medicinal cannabis in health care. Officials are also examining legislative changes that will be required to underpin the access programme.

The Minister intends to progress the establishment of the access programme as a priority. However, to be clear, patients accessing cannabis under the cannabis access programme will need to be recommended for cannabis treatment by a relevant medical consultant involved in their care. This recognises the relevance of such treatment in the overall care planning and management of the underlying medical condition.

For the period during which the access programme is being established, it remains open to the Minister to grant a licence under the Misuse of Drugs Act for access to cannabis for medical purposes in individual cases. Such applications will be considered on a case by case basis. The granting of a licence must, however, be premised on an appropriate application being submitted to the Department which is endorsed by a consultant who is responsible for the management of the patient and prepared to monitor the effects of the treatment over time.

I thank the Chairman for giving us the opportunity to make a presentation to the committee. We will be happy to address follow-up questions.