iStock 1134024602Europe’s first medical cannabis patient registry was launched today by drug reform campaigning body Drug Science.
Project TWENTY21, to be led by drug specialist and campaigner Professor David Nutt, will enrol 20,000 patients suffering from a variety of conditions by the end of 2021.
The goal is to create Europe’s largest single body of evidence supporting the efficacy of medical cannabis. Drug Science, the UK’s leading independent scientific body on drugs, hopes that the trial’s results will provide the evidence necessary to convince both policy makers and prescribing bodies of the benefits of wider adoption of medical cannabis, and help prescribers gain confidence in providing medical cannabis to patients.
Professor Nutt said: “Medical cannabis is still out of reach for far too many. Patients are left untreated, in significant debt from the cost of private prescriptions, or criminalised as they are forced to turn to the black market.
“They don’t deserve any of this, and the situation with prescribing desperately needs to change.”
Project Twenty21
Project Twenty21 will be targeting patients with the following conditions for which alternative treatment has failed:
• Chronic Pain;
• Anxiety Disorder;
• Epilepsy;
• Multiple Sclerosis;
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD);
• Substance use disorder (as harm reduction strategy); and
• Tourette’s syndrome.
The project will use real-world data to document the effectiveness, safety, QALY (a measure of disease burden, including both the quality and the quantity of life lived) and patient reported outcomes in those prescribed medical cannabis for these conditions. It will not be a randomised control trial (where some would receive placebo), and all 20,000 participants will receive medical cannabis at an affordable cost, subsidised by partnering medical companies and by Drug Science itself.
Project Twenty21 has the support The Royal College of Psychiatrists, The British Pain Society, the United Patients Alliance, patients, peers and medical cannabis campaigners.
Professor Wendy Burn, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “The Royal College of Psychiatrists welcomes this project which it hopes will make an important contribution towards addressing the paucity of evidence for the use of cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs) in all health settings, including mental health.
“We hope that this project, along with other research such as more much-needed randomised control trials, will continue to build the evidence on CBMPs (cannabis-based medicinal products)”.
Are you looking to take part in this trial?
Are you a patient with one or more of the conditions listed above? Would enrolment on the programme benefit you? Click here to submit your details.