Let us give cannabis to patients in pain, nurses demand

Royal College of Nursing votes in favour of lobbying MPS to declassify Class B drug for medical use

NURSES have voted to legalise cannabis for medical use, arguing patients should be allowed the drug if it helped reduce pain or controlled symptoms of conditions like epilepsy.

The Royal College of Nursing voted overwhelmingly in favour of lobbying the Government to change the law. Nurses argued that painkillers such as morphine and fentanyl were legal despite being from the heroin family, and cannabis should be treated similarly.

Legalisation would protect patients from disreputable dealers and prevent them being treated as criminals, they added. Tracey Risebrow, a nurse from Suffolk, said: “Surely it is better to have patients using cannabis being monitored by health professionals able to pick up on any adverse effects quickly.

“It is inhumane to have people suffering when something can help.”

Speaking at the union’s annual congress in Belfast, Fallon Scaife, a delegate, said she had lost “the man I loved” to cannabis but had since seen the benefits the drug had for patients when she transferred to a cancer ward.

Geoff Earle, from Edinburgh, added: “Our patients are often forced to use irresponsible dealers and risk prison sentences.” And nurse Catherine Gault, who suffers from a chronic illness, said: “There is strong evidence to support the use of cannabis to treat pain. It would not be a recreational drug for me. It would add quality to my life.”

Janet Davies, the RCN chief executive, later said nurses found it “frustrating” they were not allowed to give patients the drug.

Nurses voted to decriminalise the drug in all its forms, but the union’s chief said medical professionals would not advocate smoking the drug. As a Class B substance, cannabis cannot be prescribed, administered or supplied to the public. The cannabis-based Sativex has been approved for MS sufferers, but is only available from specialist doctors in extreme circumstances and is not widely prescribed.

Last month, the Royal College of Physicians – which represents 26,000 doctors in the UK – also called for the drug to be decriminalised.

Peter Carroll, of the campaign group End Our Pain, said: “We welcome this bold and decisive move from the RCN.”

But the Royal College of Psychiatrists urged caution. A spokesman said: “The legal status is a matter for government rather than doctors to decide. Cannabis carries significant mental health risks for some, including psychosis, depression and anxiety.

♦ Nurses have voted for a referendum on the final Brexit deal. Two years ago the trade body was neutral, but Ms Davies said: “We can’t manage without our European nurses. People aren’t coming in the number they used to.”

‘It is inhumane to have people suffering when something can help’