Luke Bradford: Royal College of GPs Medical Director welcomes inquiry into medicinal cannabis clinics

Doctors are welcoming an inquiry into the prescriptions from medicinal cannabis clinics.

The Medical Council's leading the investigation following patient complaints they weren't properly briefed on non-cannabis options at the clinics, or about the ongoing costs and side-effects of cannabis.

The Royal College of GPs Medical Director Luke Bradford says regulation of the clinics is overdue.

"Medicinal cannabis is lacking in evidence and should only be used once all other options have been trialled. And that's not happening in these clinics." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've got a little bit of an issue going on

(00:01):
by the looks of things in the medical community. So
the Medical Council is launching an inquiry and to doctors
who are giving out prescriptions for medicinal medicinal cannabis at
these cannabis clinics. It comes after complainants for our complaints
from patients who say that they were not properly briefed
on non cannabis options at the clinics. Doctor Luke Bradford
is the medical director for the Royal New Zealand College
of GPS and with.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Us Hey Luke, Hey, Heather, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm very well, thank you. Is that what's going on
These guys are rocking up or patients are rocking up
at the cannabis clinics and they're being given cannabis options,
but not for example, panadol is an option.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, essentially, I mean there's no other comparable service that
is based on a treatment option alone as opposed to conditions.
So we don't have clinics for any other type of
medicine or drug. We have them for different types of conditions.
So if you've only got one option in front of you,
you're likely to use it think what's happening?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
But Luke, does anybody go to a cannabis clinic like
you've you've got to saw lead water there, you go
to a cannabis clinic. I mean, the only reason you're
there is because you want cannabis. Right. You don't expect
them to offer you some traditional pharmaceutical pain relief, do you?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
No? No, So I think that in certainly. We put
out a statement in September two twenty three saying that
medicinal cannabis is lacking in evidence in the journey being
used once all other options have been trialed, but that's
not happening with these clinics.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Okay, now what do you want done here?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
There is no regulation. The medicines aren't tested or proven
in the same way as we'd have any other it's
just grown cannabis that they do in a relatively sterile manner.
We'd like some research done on what you should be
using for what, for how long and in what does
And we think that actually these single single purpose clinics

(01:52):
should come under some form of regulation because at the
moment there is a mimy.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, what so do you do? You do you want
it to be a little bit, I mean, what's I
don't even I how this works at the moment. What
do people do? Do They go in and they say, look,
I've got chronic migraines, and so you just basically take
enough oil sort of figure it out yourself, do you.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, yeah, almost, it's not quite. It's often it's an
online tick box exercise. First you go online and tick
which symptoms you have and your severity of it, and
then they'll direct you to whether or not you are
suitable for medicinal cannabis, which seems to be a universal yes,
despite the fact that the actual conditions we know it
works for are fairly limited, and then you'll have some

(02:32):
kind of comes of it. Isn't looking at your whole
health journey necessarily, isn't looking at what other medicines you're
on and what else has been trialed? And then you're
given various formulations of THC containing and CBD containing medicines
in t's and inhalations and the light.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
At different doses. Do you different strengths?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well yeah, and it's not really clear
what strength certainly in the THC you're getting because you're
making your own tea out of it. Or putting it
through a vaporizer.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's not like and then is it a case of
trial and error? Each patient does trial does it themselves.
It just figures out what, like how many cups of
tea they have to drink to feel good.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I think they probably are given a starting point that
essentially yes, yeah, all.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Right, interesting, Hey, thanks very much. I really appreciate you
talking us through that. That's Luke Bradford, Royal New Zealand
College of GP's medical director.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
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