The comments were made by Matthew Sadlier when he urged the Irish Medical Organisation (MO) to call on the Minister for Health, Simon Harris to ensure that the use of medicinal cannabis is evidence-based.
Dr Sadlier said medicinal cannabis products must be subject to the same rigorous efficacy and safety tests as other authorised medicines.
There were very useful compounds in the cannabis plant that could be used for the treatment of different conditions.
However, they must be subject to the same regulatory procedures as every other medication that is licensed today.
“There should not be any short-cut legislation specifically on medical cannabis that is not evidence-based,” he said at the IMO’s conference in Killarney, Co Kerry.
Dr Sadlier said his reading of cannabis had always been that it had never been shown to be an effective medicinal product and has never been able to get past regulatory authorities.
“It is a compound that I would love to be banished from the planet. It does more damage to humans than any drug that is out there,” he said.
He said that, in his work as a general adult psychiatrist in north Dublin over the last five years, he could comfortably say that a third of all his patients had been referred because of cannabis
Source: Evelyn Ring, The Irish Examiner, 06/04/18
Safer Student Nights
eBulletin
Poll
