Cannabis Pain Medication Unproven, Australian Board States
The Cannabis Pain Medication Debate in Australia Revolves, As Always, Around Reseach – LPC
Australia’s top pain advisory board recommends against cannabis pain medication. The Faculty of Pain Medicine at the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) said there simply is not enough research to support its use. Further, there could be dangerous side effects to using it.
“Do not prescribe currently available cannabinoid products to treat chronic non-cancer pain unless part of a registered clinical trial,” ANZCA advised in a statement.
“The research available is either unsupportive of using cannabinoid products in chronic non-cancer pain or is of such low quality that no valid scientific conclusion can be drawn,” said ANZCA’s pain medicine faculty Professor Michael Vagg.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Iain McGregor, said that more cannabis research into cannabis pain medication is definitely needed. But there is already proof of sorts it works from those taking medical cannabis or self-medicating.
“One of the things (ANZCA) has to reconcile is, why would all these people continue to use a product that doesn’t help them?” McGregor said.
Cannabis Pain Medication Has to Balance Effectiveness with Safety
Before any medication can be approved for use, it has to be tested and its relative risks and benefits reviewed. When it comes to cannabis pain medication, this is an age-old debate. In Canada, doctors questioned cannabis risk and benefits publicly in an open letter in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).
“Governments and regulators worldwide have a moral obligation to support the scientific study of cannabis to protect the well-being of patients,” the article opens.
While McGregor supports more research, he prefers a “compassionate approach” right now.
“Let’s give medicinal cannabis the benefit of the doubt while the hundreds of clinical trials around the world build the evidence base for their use,” he said.
All well and good, but what about the side effects of cannabis pain medication? That’s primarily what ANZCA is worried about, as were Canadian doctors in the CMAJ article.
“The (Therapeutic Goods Administration) still found about four in 100 chronic pain patients could potentially benefit from medicinal cannabis,” Vagg said. “But 20 to 25 patients would need to stop using it because of the side effects.” The Therapeutic Goods Administration or TGA is Australia’s drug regulator equivalent to Health Canada.
The Sydney Morning Herald did not mention what those side effects might be. (Please see link to original article below.)
So Where’s the Cannabis Pain Medication Research?
Another question this article does not delve deeply into is, where is the cannabis pain medication research? Of course, that’s a double-edged sword. The problem is that in countries where cannabis is still illegal – which is most of the world – getting research permission in difficult. In the US, arguably one of the strictest countries in the world on cannabis (at the federal level), the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) must approve all cannabis research proposals. And, apparently, it’s not a fast process either.
In that sense, the differences in cannabis research approaches between Canada and the US are staggering. But the bottom line is that there still isn’t enough research.
This is not your run-of-the-mill cannabis fear-mongering, either. Scientists on both sides of the border agree that cannabis research restrictions are a danger to public health. That’s because a potentially beneficial cannabis pain medication isn’t on the market as much as it’s about side effects.
And until more research is done, people like Professor Vagg and the doctors publishing articles in the CMAJ will always have questions about cannabis pain medication.
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