Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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599. To ask the Minister for Health the arrangements he has made to enable compassionate access to cannabis based medicines for a person (details supplied) and other persons with medical conditions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35010/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am aware that many patients believe that cannabis should be a treatment option for their medical condition. However, with the exception of Sativex, cannabis-based preparations are not currently authorised as medicines in Ireland. Cannabis has not gone through the normal regulatory procedures for medicines which are designed to protect patients and ensure treatments are supported by good evidence of their safety and efficacy.

I am however committed to urgently reviewing policy on medicinal cannabis. I have requested the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) to provide me with expert advice on the matter. The HPRA’s statutory role is to protect and enhance human health by regulating medicines and other health products and it has the necessary clinical and scientific expertise to provide advice on this issue. I have asked the HPRA to report on recent developments in the use of medicinal cannabis in other countries including an overview of emerging research. This report may also propose changes to Irish legislation in relation to the use of medicinal cannabis.

Separately the Oireachtas Health Committee will also start to examine the issue of medicinal cannabis later this month. I hope to receive the report from the HPRA and the output from the Oireachtas Health Committee early in the new year and I will then be in a position to consider future policy and progress any legislative changes that may be recommended.

In the meantime, it must be emphasised that treatment options for a particular condition are a matter to be discussed between a patient, their carer and their doctor in the first instance. There are, for example, cannabis-based preparations intended for the treatment of certain types of epilepsy which are currently undergoing clinical trials. It may be possible for patients to access these products on an individual basis, but this is something for discussion with the treating doctor.

Cannabis-based preparations are strictly controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Acts. It is open for an Irish registered doctor to apply for a licence for such preparations for an individual, named-patient. Such applications will be considered on a case by case basis. The appropriateness of any particular treatment is a matter between the patient and their doctor. It would be entirely inappropriate for me, as Minister for Health, to involve myself in this process. My understanding is that many doctors would be quite cautious about recommending a cannabis-based treatment for a patient, in the absence of the robust clinical evidence which underpins authorised medicines.