Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy Eoin Ryan said the Government would consider the initiative after meeting his British counterpart Mo Mowlam in Dublin earlier this week. Minister Mowlam, who heads the UK Drugs Strategy, said she hoped to have a cannabis prescription system in place by 2003. A Government backed trial was due to be completed by the end of next year, after which the cannabis based product would go before the British medical regulatory body for approval, she said. Mo Mowlam was telling me about this development and it is something we will be looking at, said Mr Ryan.
People recognise that it does relieve pain and nausea .
Research shows that cannabis has some accepted and many potential medical benefits, Dr Des Corrigan of Trinity College Dublin, chairman of the Government s National Drugs Advisory Committee said. One proven benefit is in the treatment of nausea from chemotherapy in cancer patients. There are also many potential benefits, particularly in relation to muscle spasticity . He said cannabis could also be used to treat epilepsy and glaucoma, a painful eye condition, while its hunger inducing effect could benefit sufferers of anorexia, Aids and cancer. What is important in the UK research is that it involves large numbers of people, so that it will be able to show statistically if it is beneficial and it will also compare it to existing treatments, said Dr Corrigan.