Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion

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

As the Minister knows, and I made it very clear that I feel strongly about the issue of vaping. Large tobacco and cigarette companies are mooching, so to speak, into vaping. To bring it back to another issue, the rise of the global cannabis market is predicted to be €123 billion by 2028. It seems very clear that big tobacco is involved in this market as well. It is similar in ways to the way that vaping has taken off. As somebody who only has facts and science to rely on, it is becoming increasingly difficult to win the argument and it is actually easier at times just to say nothing and pretend that one does not know anything about things because the level of angst if a person stands up to something like this is to some people not worth it. In my mind it is worth it. I feel particularly strongly about this issue, and while I am a major supporter of and am pro-decriminalisation of drugs, I feel very strongly about the statutory instrument signed at the end of June, which is contrary to the legal advice provided to this committee and contrary to the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, advice. In the HPRA report of 2016, Cannabis for Medical Use - A Scientific Review, the first paragraph of the executive summary states:

To date there is an absence of scientific data demonstrating the effectiveness (efficacy) of cannabis products.

It goes on to refer to conditions "such as those for which there is a public interest". I am concerned that, due to public interest and a ferocious campaign for the authorisation of medicinal cannabis, we have somehow diluted our drug regulations. The HPRA is only supposed to license and authorise medicinal products, and cannabis does not fit into that category. We do not yet have any trial data, which is important to take on board, as it is for any other drug.

When it comes to public health, we are depending on big tobacco, via vaping, to tell people how to tackle a nicotine addiction. How are we to deal with a market, which is potentially worth €128 billion, and is currently worth €60 billion to €80 billion, that purports to have a miracle product that will cure everything? We, as elected representatives, have to protect public health. This feeds into the phenomena of fake news, anti-vaxxers, and significant marketing and online influencers. We will face a public health nightmare in five or ten years because we will have diminished our regulation standards. Could a pharmaceutical company challenge the Department on this? Someone could rock up with cannabis, which does not have to go through the normal trials or regulatory process, while that company might have a drug that has gone through the trials and ticked all the boxes, and yet is not getting a marketing authorisation.

I also have an issue with the HPRA's remit, which at this point in time covers medical products. The product being allowed onto the market, albeit with limited access, is simply not a medicine. Populism has succeeded here to some extent. It is easier to use a statutory instrument than to legislate on this issue. I could be wrong but as a pharmacist, I feel strongly about drug regulation. Any dilution of regulations will lead to public health issues in the future. I realise I am standing alone on this issue because it seems like I do not want to give sick people and children this miracle medicine. However, claims have been made about treatments that simply cannot be true and that eat into the sound advances made in public health. Have the HSE or the Department predicted how we will deal with the challenges that will no doubt arrive on our doorstep in a number of years? They will have arisen under the Minister's watch because of a statutory instrument that allowed a product with no scientific basis onto the market.

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