Pubdate: Mon, 18 Aug 2014
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Sally Hughes
Page: 25

ALLOW CANNABIS FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES

Norman Baker MP is calling for liberalised drug laws so that 
medicinal cannabis can be made available (Minister calls for looser 
restrictions on cannabis to treat sick, 14 August). People with 
multiple sclerosis who turn to street cannabis to treat their 
condition often do so out of desperation. For years they have been 
told by successive governments to wait for a pharmacological, legal 
alternative to cannabis as a way of treating their symptoms and pain.

Now one such treatment, Sativex, exists - but the latest draft 
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) clinical 
guideline proposes rejecting it based on a flawed assessment of its 
cost effectiveness. Just one in 50 people currently have access to 
this treatment, most of them paying privately. Unless Nice amends the 
guideline, the majority of people will be left to battle painful 
symptoms, or face financial strain as a result of funding the 
licensed treatment themselves.

Sally Hughes

Programme director for policy, MS Society
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom