Beyond Chronic Pain: Why Private Clinics are Vital to Making Medical Cannabis Mainstream
The medical cannabis industry is in a precarious situation. The fledgling market is experiencing rapid growth across Europe, indicative of surging demand.
However, in countries like the UK, where it remains largely segmented from the national health service, the majority of patients are still reliant on private clinics for access to treatment and must pay out of their own pockets.
As such, the onus also falls on these private companies to expand access to the thousands of patients who could benefit from medical cannabis in the country.
One of the most impactful ways of doing this, and a crucial step towards integrating cannabis into mainstream healthcare, is the expansion of the base of conditions for which cannabis can be prescribed.
Expanding conditions
According to data from Prohibition Partners, chronic pain conditions, including neuropathic pain, cancer-related pain and pain from systemic and immunological conditions, are by far the most common conditions for which medical cannabis is prescribed across Europe.
Of the 16 European countries that have legalised some form of medical cannabis that are tracked by Prohibition Partners, 12 prescribe it for some form of chronic pain.
In the UK, while chronic pain is not specifically mentioned, as with any other ‘unlicensed medicine,’ it is down to the clinician to determine the most appropriate medication or course of treatment to prescribe for a patient.
This means that cannabis can be prescribed for a very broad range of conditions, provided they have enough clinical evidence of its efficacy and safety.
According to a Volteface report exploring the UK medical cannabis sector, more than 40,000 specialist clinicians are eligible to prescribe in the country, but only around 100 (0.25%) are actively doing so.
As these doctors are the ‘gatekeepers’ to expanding access to cannabis-based medicines, supporting them to prescribe is crucial for more patients to be able to benefit from the treatment.
