Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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601. To ask the Minister for Health the reason medicinal cannabis must be sourced from the Hague; if other exporters are available; and if consideration has been given to sourcing the product from other sources. [43430/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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There is no obligation on clinicians in possession of a Ministerial licence pursuant to the Misuse of Drugs Acts 1977-2016 to source cannabis-based products from any particular supplier.

It is important to note that it will always be the decision of the clinician, in consultation with their patient, to prescribe or not prescribe a particular treatment, including cannabis treatment, for a patient under their care. The Minister for Health has no role in this clinical decision-making process.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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602. To ask the Minister for Health if he has contacted his counterparts in the UK and Northern Ireland to discuss their arrangements for the importation of medicinal cannabis. [43431/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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This question is being answered on the understanding that the Deputy is referring to importation of individual prescriptions for named patients.

Officials in my Department have been in contact with their counterparts in the UK. UK importers have been using couriers throughout COVID-19 to collect the dispensed prescriptions from a pharmacy in the Netherlands on a named patient basis only. The UK Government does not organise the collections and does not cover the cost of collection and import, except for the NHS prescriptions. Home Office policy allows for other unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use to be imported in anticipation of prescriptions giving wholesalers a small stock on which to draw.