Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There has been much frustration about the lack of progress with the medical cannabis access programme, MCAP. The first time the access programme was mooted was in 2017 after a report by the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA. In the meantime, there has been a lack of progress. Since 2016 and 2017, there has been much campaigning by families and individuals to get access. The majority of people who campaigned have got access via a licence system. That is not perfect by any means but at least they have access. The whole idea of the medical cannabis access programme was to give individuals access via prescription. To date, only 50 people have got access. That is a tiny number when you consider that the programme has been up and running for two years. From the outset, we have always said that the programme was extremely restrictive with the conditions that were stipulated. There is significant evidence, particularly regarding neuropathic pain, that medical cannabis can be very beneficial.

The programme has been reviewed by the Health Research Board. There is hope among those who have been campaigning for this for a long time that the review will support and recommend the expansion of the programme. If it does not expand to other conditions, it is redundant.

There are major issues regarding who can prescribe medical cannabis. The programme is a good concept but it is extremely onerous on the consultants who register their patients for it. Consultants say that there is significant paperwork to register patients and for access.

The main thing we are requesting for those who have been campaigning for better access is an expansion of the programme. It should be general practitioner-led rather than consultant-led because consultants, at the best of times, are hard to see in the first place. That restrictive process needs to be looked at. Another issue with lack of access is where people have to go to the black market. It is onerous when people who have an illness must rely on the black market. Some people even go abroad to get access to medical cannabis. The worst of all is when people have to go without. That is just not acceptable. This programme was set up to give people access. At the moment, however, the programme is too restrictive. Hopefully, the review will support and recommend the expansion of the programme in order that people, particularly those with neuropathic pain and chronic pain, can get access. Otherwise, the programme will stand still and will be largely redundant if it does not expand in the context of the three conditions that are stipulated.

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