Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Gino Kenny for raising this very important issue and apologise on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, who is unavailable. The report of the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, entitled Cannabis for Medical Use - A Scientific Review, recommended that if access to cannabis is to be permitted for medical purposes, its use should only be initiated as part of a structured process of formal, ongoing clinical evaluation for a limited number of clearly defined medical conditions which have failed to respond to all other previous treatments and where there is at least modest evidence that cannabis may be effective. Patients should be under the direct supervision of an appropriately trained and experienced medical consultant. The specified medical conditions or indications are spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and severe, refractory or treatment-resistant epilepsy.

The Minister for Health undertook to establish an access programme to facilitate access to cannabis based treatments in certain circumstances, in line with the HPRA’s recommendations. An expert reference group was tasked with the development of operational, clinical and practice guidelines for this access programme. The group was asked to advise on the development of operational, clinical and practice guidelines for healthcare professionals treating patients through an access programme. These guidelines have been published on the Department of Health’s website as part of a comprehensive repository of information on cannabis for medical use. The purpose of the access programme is to facilitate access to cannabis based products or preparations that are of a standardised quality and which meet an acceptable level of quality assurance during the manufacturing process. Availability of cannabis products that are of an appropriate quality standard and are affordable to patients is clearly critical in establishing the access programme. Canada and the Netherlands are the only two countries that currently permit the export of cannabis products which meet acceptable quality control standards beyond their borders. The Netherlands permits exports of cannabis dried herb but does not permit commercial export of oil-based cannabis formulations. Department officials continue to work intensively on finding solutions to the supply of appropriate quality assured cannabis products for Irish patients. Doctors continue to utilise the ministerial licence route to prescribe medical cannabis for their patients. Until suitable medical cannabis products are made available in Ireland, prescribers and their patients are sourcing the prescribed product from a pharmacy in the Netherlands, on foot of their medical prescription. It is intended that the ministerial licence application scheme will continue to operate in parallel with the cannabis for medical use access programme after the programme becomes operational, for exceptional cases only and where there is an un-met clinical need.

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