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

It is not Professor Finn's job to be political, but is he surprised that pain has been left out of the recommendation of the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, or that it suggested that there was not much evidence of this product's efficacy when Professor Michael Barnes says the opposite? Professor Barnes seems to suggest that the highest level of evidence concerns pain and that there is less evidence of its efficacy for some of the recommended conditions on the HPRA's restrictive list. I find that odd. Does Professor Finn?

I have a supplementary question on the comparison between cannabis and other products for pain and conditions for which cannabis may be, or is evidentially, beneficial and how the two are treated in law and in this debate. Has Professor Finn a comment on this matter? Would it be fair to say that almost all, or certainly the vast majority, of approved drugs for pain and almost every other condition have significant, even severe, side effects in some or a large number of cases, yet they are authorised nonetheless? Is there evidence to suggest that any of those side effects is more dangerous in cannabis than drugs that are currently available over the counter or on prescription? Would Professor Finn go so far as to say that the evidence suggests that, while cannabis has some side effects, they are generally not as severe or dangerous?