Medical cannabis: England launches first human study
Drug Science, in association with several other players, is launching a national medical cannabis pilot project in the United Kingdom. Its name: TWENTY21.
A first in the field of medical cannabis.
TWENTY21 aims to recruit 20,000 patients into its pilot project by the end of 2021. But for what purpose? To use a real-world patient registry to assess the efficacy, safety, and lessons learned from patients prescribed medical cannabis.
Drug Science believes that the benefit-risk ratio of medical cannabis as a treatment for certain diseases is favorable.
They believe that a perpetual repressive approach to medical cannabis is irresponsible. The reason? Faced with the inability to obtain quality and legal products, patients naturally turn to the illegal market.
Cannabis obtained "on the street" is extremely potent, unmeasured, and often cut with all sorts of unknown and dangerous substances. As long as things remain as they are, the illegal market will be supplied and will strengthen every day. So much so that it will be almost inconceivable to dismantle it in the near future.
The TWENTY21 project has already received support from several expert medical cannabis companies: Althea, Alta-Flora, and Cannuba, which have offered to provide medical supplies. Its official inauguration took place on July 18, 2019, in London.
Cannabis could effectively treat many disorders.
The first part of the project will focus on targeting the following patients and situations – with particular attention to known failures to date: chronic pain, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (war veterans), various sclerosis, Tourette's Syndrome, incarcerated populations.
The data will then be compiled, analyzed, and used to support the approach addressed to health authorities. This gives hope that a new medical cannabis regulatory system can be implemented in the United Kingdom.
Professor David Nutt, chairman of Drug Science, stated:
"In the UK, cannabis was a medicine until 1971, when it was banned for political reasons. Since then, hundreds of thousands of patients have been forced to break the law to obtain a more favorable treatment than their prescription drugs. Although the UK made cannabis a medicine in November 2018, there are still only a few prescriptions on the NHS."
Clarke French, director and founder of United Patients Alliance, also commented on the collaboration with Drug Science:
"United Patients Alliance is delighted to partner with Drug Science for the Twenty21 project. We believe this is a vital initiative. Patients in the UK deserve evidence-based policy and access to cannabis-based medicines on the NHS. The Twenty21 project will provide a growing body of evidence to allow desperately ill patients to access cannabis-based medicines."
