May I say how welcome it is to see the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm of Owlpen, on the Front Bench alongside her colleague from the Home Office? I hope that she will report this debate to her colleagues in the Department of Health. It is excellent that the two departments are represented on the Front Bench for this important debate.
The noble Lords, Lord Rea and Lord Ribeiro, spoke with all the authority of their medical expertise, and the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, spoke with the authority that comes from his own unfortunate experience. I follow the noble Baronesses, Lady Hamwee and Lady Meacher, in commending to the Committee, and very much to the two departments represented on the
Front Bench, the report just recently published under the auspices of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform by Professor Val Curran and Mr Frank Warburton, entitled Regulating Cannabis for Medical Use in the UK. Had they heard the presentation of this report by Professor Curran from University College London, they would have been persuaded that the arguments put forward are eminently reasonable.
She talked about the severe constraints applied to the progress of medical research by the Government of the United Kingdom’s persistence in listing cannabis in Schedule 1. She told us that it costs a minimum of some £5,000 to achieve the licence and to pay for the secure conditions to enable the pursuit of research into the medical properties and potential benefits of cannabis. That is a severe discouragement, particularly in the stringent climate of funding for academic research. She estimated that research on cannabis costs some 10 times as much as research on other drugs. It is a serious constraint, yet a significant body of evidence strongly suggests that cannabis-based medications can be beneficial for a whole series of conditions, many of which have been itemised by previous speakers.
The noble Lord, Lord Ribeiro, drew attention to the tentative evidence that may be emerging of benefits in relation to post-traumatic stress disorder. That is certainly a pressing and important issue for us in this country, as well as in America. Professor Curran also told us that there are suggestions that cannabis could be beneficial in the treatment of schizophrenia. It would seem perverse in the extreme to continue to deny ourselves the opportunity effectively to pursue research on the medical benefits of cannabis when patients suffering from such a range of diseases could be assisted.
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The noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, feared that this could the beginning of a wholesale loosening, and that if we were to license cannabis for medical research and medical use it might lead to widespread abuse and widespread additional recreational use. I do not think he need entertain that fear. Heroin has been in Schedule 2 for many years and there is no evidence of leakage of heroin, or diamorphine, from properly protected medical situations into the recreational market. No one is suggesting that facilitating further research and development of cannabis-based medications should imply any easing of security and protection and a loosening of the regime, such that the consumption of illegal drugs could be widely facilitated. Important evidence that that need not be so is presented in another recent report, in the name of Professor Deborah Hasin and her team, at the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University. They looked back at the evidence over 24 years, across a population of 1 million adolescents, to see whether, in the American states where cannabis use for medical purposes is legal, there has been any correlation with additional consumption of cannabis in those states and indeed in contiguous states. She found that there is no higher incidence of cannabis consumption in that group of adolescents than in the rest of the relevant population. I hope that somewhat allays the fears very naturally put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra.
The legal regime in this country at the moment seems substantially confused. It seems wrong in principle and very hard on individuals that a consistent policy is not applied across the country. This is because the guidance is uneven and the effects of the guidance certainly are very variously interpreted. I am aware of one person who has been prescribed Bedrocan because nothing else is as effective in assisting her in dealing with chronic severe pain. She has to go to Holland on something like a monthly basis to collect her medication, as I mentioned in the short discussion last week. It is a very harsh requirement to make of a person who is in great difficulties because of her pain and who does not have large resources of cash to cover the cost of travel and of buying such medication. Bediol, one of the cannabis-based medications available in the Netherlands is in many ways comparable in its benefits to Sativex and costs a fraction of the price. Dronabinol is in Schedule 2 under our system but it has not been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. The system seems riddled with inconsistencies and needs a proper look to tidy it up and ensure that some principles are being applied and applied consistently.
I also echo the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, that it is wrong not to have a more humane understanding of the predicament of those 30,000 or so people who it is estimated are providing their own cannabis in this country illegally—because nothing else works so well for them—and of course risking prosecution. I understand that the Court of Appeal ruled out the defence of necessity in 2005. We do not seem to have a well-considered, consistent, sensible and humane set of policies.
I believe that cannabis should be listed in Schedule 2. The Government’s own Drugs: International Comparators report told them that the relative severity of different regimes makes no difference to the incidence of recreational usage. The fears that are associated with allowing, or facilitating, the medical use of cannabis are overstated and inappropriate. People should be prescribed cannabis-based medications, when appropriate, on a consistent basis across the United Kingdom.