Patients and health workers described their experiences of medical cannabis at a conference held in Belfast this week.
The conference was the first of its kind in Northern Ireland and was organised by Integro Medical Cannabis Clinics in the Crown Plaza Hotel on Thursday with the aim of having a discussion about the use of medical cannabis and the experiences patients have had using it.
It featured panels on the use of medical cannabis to treat chronic pain and mental health conditions, with clinicians describing their experiences working with the medicine and how it has impacted their patients.
Integro lead clinician and specialist pain consultant Dr Sunny Nayee said that they had been invited to Belfast by patients from Northern Ireland and he was keen to help provide more education to attendees regarding medical cannabis, the conditions it can help and their treatments.
Dr Nayee explained what got him involved in medical cannabis, something which has a stigma around it among health professionals, and said that the evidence he has seen shows that it is something that should be looked at more seriously and researched in order to understand its benefits and side effects better.
He said: "In my work as an NHS pain consultant in London I have come across multiple situations where patients had lifelong debilitating chronic conditions, post cancer pain, fibromyalgia or arthritis pains and quite often conventional medicine can help to an extent but very often in my experience, it fails patients.
"Having had that experience in chronic pain I started to explore what sort of things my patients were doing that they weren’t telling the doctors, and it became quite apparent once you get to know them over a period of time that a lot of patients were turning to alcohol or other illicit drugs but also cannabis as well.
"What was really interesting is that the patients who had turned to cannabis actually did see some improvements in their pain scores, in their sleep, in their arthritis, in their ability to live and function on a day to day basis.
"I thought there was definitely something in this and started looking into cannabis and the effects that it has on pain and the human body, and started getting interested in the Canadian programme that has been quite long established.
"I think the proof really is in the pudding, there are lots of case studies, one of which is a patient that I have treated had debilitating chronic widespread pain all over her body and was not able to function or even to leave the house because she was in so much pain.
"She was quite a young mother and after a course of medicinal cannabis treatment she was able to get a part time job in the cleaning industry and start going for walks with her child around the park, and although to most people this may seem like minor activities, for her it was life changing.
"We were invited to Belfast because we have a lot of patients who are based in Northern Ireland who have benefitted from medicinal cannabis and there has been a real need and yearning for greater patient education.
"There is this concept of medical cannabis being an unlicensed medicine and there is already a debate opening up about how unlicensed medicines should be prescribed and there is a growing trend in medicine now about patient choice.
"A lot of patients don't’ want to take antidepressants, we already know that opioids are not good for patients, that other pain killing drugs quite often have other uses, they are antiepileptics for example, so this concept of last resort is something that is already being challenged in the medical community and I think that as the data and the research evolves I think we will find that actually having some cannabis oil to help you sleep is far safer and less addictive than using a benzodiazepine to help you get to sleep."
Dr Nayee also raised concerns around the level of opioid use in the UK and the impacts that opioid use has had in America with use at "epidemic levels". He said that he can see similar circumstances arising in the UK if opioid use is not cut and that medical cannabis could be a key solution to deal with the issue while also helping patients and improving their lives.
Simon Loughlin and Simone Barry were two medical cannabis patients who spoke at the conference and said that medical cannabis had changed their lives for the better.
Simone, who has a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and a spinal cord injury, said that she took around 40 tablets a day before using medical cannabis and has since come off of them all.
She said: "he best thing is not to have side effects, there are none other than positive ones, I have gone from taking a concoction of pills every day to now just one mil of oil that I take every night and my flower that I am able to vape in between. I sleep brilliantly because there are no opioids that are interrupting my sleep anymore. It has been a win win for me."
Simon said he had a chronic pain condition that caused him to develop mental health issues, but since using medical cannabis he is now able to live his life again.
He said: "Before medical cannabis I was in a bad place, a very dark place, I was addicted to pharmaceutical medication and I wasn't working. I was spending time in bed and never got up because I was in agony and in pain but I tried to never let people see it.
"The transition from pharmaceutical drugs was horrendous, the worst thing I have ever done in my life, because I was on quite a few of them for depression, anxiety, and muscle spasms. I never liked the fact that I was on them but it was tough to get off them.
"I actually have a life now, I can see a future again. I am not hiding in the house or rolling about my bed at night in pain or sitting up to 3 or 4 in the morning walking the floor wondering what is wrong with me."
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