Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent comparative assessment he has made of the risks of prescribing (a) medicinal cannabis and (b) treatments for drug addiction including methadone and diamorphine; and for what reasons prescription of medical cannabis is required to be prescribed by clinicians listed on the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council.

The Department has not made a comparative assessment of the risks of prescribing medicinal cannabis versus methadone and diamorphine. Methadone and diamorphine are licensed medicines, whereas the vast majority of cannabis-based medicines are unlicensed, which means they have not been assessed for their safety, quality and efficacy by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Whilst the evidence-base remains limited, the decision to prescribe unlicensed products remains with specialist doctors who have expert knowledge and take responsibility for prescribing.