Cannabis should be available on prescription to fight serious illness, a House of Lords committee said yesterday. Cannabis can and should be used to relieve the suffering of terminally ill cancer patients and multiple sclerosis victims, according to a Lords science and technology committee report.
Its findings, published today, have been widely welcomed by patients, politicians and even, guardedly, by anti-drugs campaigners. However, the British Medical Association, which represents UK doctors, says making cannabis available on prescription would be a misguided move which could prevent new, more effective drugs being developed.
Currently listed as a Schedule 1 drug, cannabis can be used only in research. The Lords committee believes it should be switched to Schedule 2, allowing doctors and pharmacists to dispense it immediately rather than waiting years for the results of clinical trials.
The chairman, Liberal Democrat Lord Perry of Walton, told a Westminster news conference evidence that cannabis could fight pain justified a change in the law.
Lord Perry (77) told journalists: "Before any of you ask us if we have ever smoked pot, the answer is that we're not going to tell you. It's not relevant to the inquiry . . . But cannabis can be used to reduce the amount of morphine or heroin that is used for terminal conditions like cancer. This is clearer now than it was 25 years ago."
However, the BMA wants more trials to discover which of the 60-plus cannabinoids contained in the plant have therapeutic uses and which may have adverse effects.
Sir William Asscher, chair of the Association's Board of Science and Education, said he understood the "humanitarian motives" behind the report but could not support it.
"Crude cannabis is a toxic mixture of more than 60 cannabinoids and other ingredients," he said.
"Prescribing it will not add to our knowledge. It will detract from the development of scientifically based and more beneficial new drugs."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "We will study the report with interest. We realise there is conflicting evidence as to whether or not cannabis related materials are suitable for medicinal use.
"Any medicinal use of a chemical product would have to go through the licensing process of the Medicines Control Agency.
"We don't entirely rule it out at this stage but we will keep it under review and respond to their Lordships in due course."
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said individual active ingredients should be identified rather than simply prescribing cannabis. But a spokeswoman said the society would welcome reclassifying it as a Schedule 2 drug to make medical trials easier.
The Multiple Sclerosis Society endorsed the findings but said hospital specialists, not GPs, should be responsible for prescribing the drug.
"In the meantime, we hope prosecuting authorities and courts will deal compassionately with people with MS who are using cannabis," a spokesperson said.
Labour MP Mr Paul Flynn, whose wife Samantha has endured a year of painful chemotherapy which he says could have been relieved by cannabis use, described the proposals as "splendid".
It would help patients who gain relief from cannabis escape the "worst of all possible worlds" where they relied on criminals for an unreliable and illegal supply of beneficial medicine, he said.
If cannabis is legalised as medicine, the Lords do not envisage it being smoked, and they are calling for research into other ways of taking it.
