Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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469. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to introduce primary or secondary legislation to amend the definition of specified controlled drug in the Misuse of Drugs (Prescription and Control of Supply of Cannabis for Medical Use) Regulations 2019 to include products that are permitted to be sold or supplied in the United Kingdom in addition to EU member states, given the legislation was passed at a time when the UK was an EU member state, in order that beneficial medical products which meet the criteria in his Department’s Clinical Guidance on Cannabis for Medical Use may be made available to Irish patients with severe treatment-resistant epilepsy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27073/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Misuse of Drugs (Prescription and Control of Supply of Cannabis for Medical Use) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 262/2019) in the definition “specified controlled drugs” the cannabis product or prepararion must be one:

(d) which is permitted to be sold or supplied for medical purposes by the relevant public or state body of a Member State other than the State,

(e) which is currently supplied to patients in the Member State referred to in sub-paragraph (d),

(f) which is packaged and labelled in the English language and in accordance with guidance on labelling and packaging as published by the Authority, and

(g) which is specified in Schedule 1;

The United Kingdom is not included in the definition as it is no longer a Member State. In this regard officials in the Department are currently involved in ongoing discussions with the Health Products Regulatory Authority to examine the possibility of including the United Kingdom in the Definition.