Take care with cannabis prescription, doctors warned
DOCTORS have been warned against rushing to prescribe medical cannabis despite Australians’ acceptance of its use.
To date, the evidence on the effectiveness of medical cannabis remains “limited”, write Jennifer Martin and Associate Professor Yvonne Bonomo in an editorial for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).
Published in the Medical Journal of Australia, they say the usual regulatory processes designed to protect patients from potential serious harms caused by medicinal cannabinoids must be adhered to.
“The pace and scale of the introduction of medicinal cannabis are unprecedented and have raised challenges for health professionals, not so much because of its known addictive and psychoactive properties, but because its introduction has not followed the usual research-based safety and effectiveness processes,” they wrote.
They argue there is a need for stronger and more streamlined guidelines in administering and supplying medical cannabis.
In Australia, medicinal cannabis is legal but patient access is still very difficult.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) Special Access Scheme (SAS) provides patient access to cannabis on compassionate grounds without the usual quality and safety data requirements.
This means approval is granted on a case-by-case basis provided documentation is given by the prescribing doctor, says Dr John Lawson, a paediatric neurologist and senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales.
He says there needs to be a balance between compassion and careful assessment for patients for whom cannabis products might be beneficial.