Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Mullen. I will be going to the Seanad in a few minutes and so will be very brief.

From a medical viewpoint, we know that cannabinoids bind with receptors in the brain. Some of those receptors are in the amygdala, which is involved in processing fear, stress and paranoia. My first question is to Professor David Finn. Would he agree or disagree that these products could possibly exacerbate paranoia?

I am somewhat reassured that there would be a list of specific conditions for which products could be used. Am I correct in stating that these could be circumvented in some way by consultants if they deemed it necessary? Would only consultants be allowed to prescribe or would specialist GPs be allowed to do so? Every GP on the specialist register, such as myself, is called a "specialist GP". So would I be allowed to prescribe that? If so, what safeguards are in place for rogue prescribing? Would that be covered by this legislation or would it be covered by the Medical Practitioners Act?

Finally, I am struggling to distinguish between certification and prescription. If a doctor prescribes a product, he or she issues a prescription. I am struggling to get my head around this because, if the consultant gives a prescription for this product, is this classified as a high-tech product? Does the patient bring that to the pharmacy and is the product dispensed there or is it bought like a high-tech drug for rheumatology or such? What often happens is that the consultant would give a prescription to a patient, the patient would come to the GP, and that would be transcribed on a medical card prescription or whatever else. That is something of a grey area. Those are my three points.