Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to bring up a point about experts and people who would have expertise in the area of cannabis. The argument that has been put forward would, to my mind, suggest that any novel drug would have such issues. Nobody has expertise because it did not exist before. Consider this for any new product, for example, in yesterday's great announcement with Orkambi. There was nobody in the Department who knew anything about Orkambi until the data came through from the manufacturer, because the data did not exist. I believe the argument being put forward about the lack of experts in the field is a null argument.

The extensive undergraduate programme and training for pharmacists gives us the capacity, through our knowledge of pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and all of that, to apply those professionally acquired skills to make reasoned decisions in the interest of public safety once a new drug comes on to the market. A pharmacist does not just stop learning the day he or she gets a certificate, but instead he or she constantly learns and updates knowledge. There are quite cumbersome processes in place for that level of expertise to be maintained, all in the interest of public health. I do not think it is fair to suggest that because something is new, some lad has to go off and do a degree in Orkambi or whatever. We have the skill set, as does the technical end of the pharmacology sector.

I refer to an expert, a professor of pharmacology, who was before the committee. Perhaps I am wrong but I do not believe that scientists, as in pharmacologists, as distinct from pharmacists, have any professional regulatory ethical body. Maybe I am wrong about that. Nonetheless, a pharmacologist is a scientist in a laboratory environment with no interaction with actual people or patients. There is a distinct difference between a pharmacologist and pharmacist. Pharmacologists are not mentioned in any of the regulations about misuse of drugs.

Reference was made to the fact the majority of GPs in this country are up for this. I have seen no study which shows that to be the case, and it is regrettable that the Chairman, Deputy Michael Harty, is not here. If that evidence has been stated here, it is important that members of the committee would get that study and consider it.