A nationwide survey of 4,000 folks has highlighted the necessity to enhance consciousness of medical hashish prescriptions within the UK.
Regardless of the UK Authorities’s 2018 choice to permit prescriptions for medical hashish, most British folks stay unaware that it could be out there to them, a brand new nationwide survey has discovered.
Carried out by the UK medical hashish clinic Mamedica, the survey discovered that 84 per cent of Brits are unaware that hashish flower is accessible on prescription, whereas 56 per cent are unaware that they’ll legally entry any type of hashish drugs.
Regardless of this lack of information, most British folks at the moment are open to utilizing medical hashish, the survey discovered, with 60 per cent saying that they’d think about it as an alternative choice to conventional drugs and 59 per cent saying they’d think about it if really useful by a medical skilled.
Nearly all of respondents (70 per cent) consider that there’s a downside with training round medical hashish and 81 per cent nonetheless really feel there’s a unfavorable stigma surrounding the plant.
Mamedica surveyed 4,000 consultant people throughout the UK.
Jon Robson, founding father of Mamedica, advised Hashish Well being: “We carried out this survey within the hopes of understanding how attitudes had modified towards medical hashish since legalisation in 2018 and, specifically, whether or not there was a necessity for extra training round the usage of hashish as a drugs, its advantages and the way sufferers can entry this in Britain in 2022.”
Since November 2018, it has been authorized to prescribe hashish in Britain, with greater than 16,000 sufferers now receiving prescriptions for circumstances together with power ache and nervousness. Sufferers can eat hashish within the type of each flower and oils.
“The survey clearly exhibits that we’re at a turning level in Britain in 2022, with greater than half of British folks prepared to think about hashish as an alternative choice to conventional drugs and an identical quantity prepared to strive it whether it is prescribed by a health care provider,” Robson added.
Mamedica founder Jon Robson
“However the outcomes additionally spotlight a worrying consciousness hole in relation to the legality and availability of medical hashish. It has been practically 4 years for the reason that landmark choice to legalise medical hashish in Britain, and consciousness across the availability of merchandise for prescription stays disappointingly low.
“The general public have to be educated each on the authorized realities of hashish in Britain in 2022 and on the advantages of medical hashish. At current, the federal government is just not taking the steps required to lift consciousness of this situation.”
Robson believes extra GPs and specialist medical doctors have to be educated on medical hashish and be open to referring sufferers who may gain advantage from it.
“Presently, NHS medical doctors observe the Nationwide Institute of Well being and Care (NICE) tips which provide solely restricted entry to medical hashish regardless of the 2018 landmark authorities guideline,” Robson added.
Marketing consultant neurologist and chair of the Medical Hashish Clinicians Society Professor Mike Barnes, who has been on the forefront of medical hashish within the UK for over 20 years, described the survey as “fascinating”.
“There’s actually excellent news and unhealthy information,” Prof Barnes mentioned.
“The excellent news is that about 60 per cent of the survey would think about using hashish for an ailment and an identical quantity would think about using hashish as an alternative choice to conventional drugs.
“The unhealthy information is that solely 57 per cent knew that hashish was now out there on prescription and over 70 per cent thought there was an issue with training on medical hashish.”
He added: “A lot has been executed over the past three years, however there’s a lot nonetheless to do.”