Medicinal cannabis benefits still unclear, pain specialists say

DOCTORS are being warned not to prescribe medical cannabis even if Australian governments have legalised the treatment.

Pain doctors say the jury’s still out on medicinal cannabis. Picture: AP Photo/Richard Vogel

DOCTORS are being warned not to prescribe medical cannabis even if Australian governments have legalised the treatment.

A meeting of Australia’s top pain specialists will tomorrow be told the federal and Victorian governments have jumped the gun by legalising medical ­cannabis despite there being little evidence of benefit for ­patients.

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Professor Milton Cohen, ­director of professional affairs for the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetist’s Faculty of Pain Medicine, said Australian governments had reacted to “community enthusiasm’’ over science in legalising the prescribing of medicinal cannabis, generating a culture of ‘’false hope’’.

“A pathway has been opened up for the cultivation, manufacture, distribution of substances that are fundamentally unproven and untested,” Prof Cohen said.

There is poor evidence that cannabis oil products assist with pain relief, a professor says. Picture: AP Photo/David Goldman

“The cart is well ahead of the horse on this one. The cart of making the drug is well ahead of the horse of the ­science.

“There is just no good reason on the poor evidence that we have to suspect that cannibanoids have anything significant to offer in chronic non-cancer pain.”

The Faculty of Pain Medicine sets the professional standards and oversees training and education in pain medicine in Australia, and has a ­policy of not supporting the use of cannabinoids in chronic non-cancer pain.

Prof Cohen will outline opposition to the wider use of cannabis at ANZCA’s annual scientific meeting in Brisbane tomorrow, saying specialists, the medical profession and the public needed to be cautious.

He also said that while trials being undertaken for the control of epilepsy and nausea after chemotherapy show they may be legitimate use for cannabis.

However, he said chronic pain was a much more complex condition and urged specialists and others doctors not to supports its prescription.

“The international data on which one could make an informed decision about the effect of medicinal cannabis on chronic non-cancer pain is in fact very poor. The conclusions have been oversold,’’ he said.

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Victoria became Australia’s first state to legalise cannabis for medical use in April 2016. This year children with epilepsy became the first to access the drug, although consideration if being given to other patients, including those with chronic pain.

The Federal government last year legalised access to Australian-grown and manufactured medicinal cannabis, subject to state regulations.

The reporter attended the ANZCA meeting in Brisbane as a guest of the College