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TREATMENT

Danish medicinal cannabis scheme likely to struggle, doctors reluctant to prescribe: report

Very few doctors in Denmark are willing to prescribe medicinal cannabis oil under a new trial scheme, according to a report.

Danish medicinal cannabis scheme likely to struggle, doctors reluctant to prescribe: report
Photo: VictoriaBee/Depositphotos

From January 1st 2018, Denmark’s Ministry of Health will allow selected patient groups to be prescribed cannabis oil by their general practitioners as part of a four-year trial.

But very few doctors are actually willing to prescribe the oil, according to broadcaster DR, which spoke to every regional chairperson with Denmark’s Association for General Practitioners (Praktiserende Lægers Organisation) about the issue.

Doctors are reticent to prescribe medicine that lacks studies proving its effectiveness and side effects, reports DR.

Lise Høyer, chairperson with the Central Jutland branch of the organisation, told the broadcaster that she would not prescribe the treatment.

“When I write a prescription I am responsible for all effects and side effects, and how it effects other medicines being taken. I don’t have that knowledge [with the prescription of cannabis oil],” Høyer said.

A second regional chairperson with the organisation, North Jutland’s Annemette Knudsen Alstrup, echoed those sentiments.

“There will, to the best of my knowledge, be extremely few GPs who dare take the responsibility of prescribing medicinal cannabis,” she said to DR.

READ ALSO: 'Blame for tragic case should not be individualised': nurses join Denmark doctors' campaign

With so few doctors willing to write a prescription for the treatment, the trial scheme risks collapsing, according to the report.

“This trial scheme looks like a scheme which has political support but makes no professional sense. Furthermore, it risks creating a false sense of hope for many patients, since they will not be able to be prescribed medicinal cannabis in many places,” Alstrup said.

Bent Hansen, chairperson with overarching health authority Danske Regioner, told DR that he could also understand why doctors were not keen to take part in the trial scheme.

GPs can easily be blamed if treatments prescribed by them result in unforeseen side effects, Hansen said.

“If [doctors] feel that they are not well enough informed then state authorities must ensure a better and stronger basis [for the treatment]. A parliamentary majority supported the trial,” he said.

Dorthe Heilskov, a former nurse who suffers with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, said that cannabis oil has a “fantastic” effect on extreme pain brought on in her fingers, elbows and shoulders by the diseases.

“I can now sleep at night and have managed without ordinary arthritis medicine since August 13th,” Heilskov told DR.

“I have a lot of problems with allergies with normal arthritis medicine and am also allergic to normal painkillers. I can’t make my life function without cannabis oil,” she added. 

READ ALSO: The Local speaks to Copenhagen doctor who prescribes medicinal cannabis

IMMIGRATION

Frenzied rescues in Med save over 2,000 migrants

Rescue vessels in the Mediterranean worked flat out on Friday to rescue over 2,000 people from flimsy dinghies as exhausted saviours accused the EU of turning a blind eye to the crisis.

Frenzied rescues in Med save over 2,000 migrants
Photo: Giovanni Isolino/AFP

The Italian coast guard and five privately-run rescue boats plucked migrants from 16 overcrowded dinghies and three wooden vessels.

After non-stop back-to-back rescues, a total of 2,074 people were brought to safety, the coastguard said, a day after a shipwreck left at least 97 migrants feared drowned off Libya.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) boats Prudence and Aquarius rescued some 1,145 people from nine different dinghies in exhausting operations it said proved their presence off the North African coast was needed.

The rest were picked up by the coastguard, the Phoenix — run by the Maltese organisation Moas — the German NGO Sea Eye and the German Jugend's Iuventa.

Rescuers said a teenager had been found dead in one of the rubber boats on Friday during the “very difficult” rescues.

The EU's border control agency Frontex has accused donor-funded vessels of doing more harm than good by sailing off Libya and acting “like taxis”, and Italian prosecutors have suggested they may have links with traffickers — a charge they have fiercely denied.

“How many people would have crossed if we weren't there today, Frontex? Probably the same. How many would have died? Probably, many more,” MSF said on Twitter.

“Where are Frontex boats in a day like this?” it asked. “EU states keep their blind eyes turned” and in 2017 “the sea continues to be a graveyard”.

SOS Mediterranee, which operates the Aquarius jointly with MSF, posted a video showing women singing with happiness after their rescue.

Six years since the revolution that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libya has become a key departure point for migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Hailing mainly from sub-Saharan countries, most of the migrants board boats operated by people traffickers in western Libya, and make for the Italian island of Lampedusa 300 kilometres (190 miles) away.

Since the beginning of this year, at least 590 migrants have died or gone missing along the Libyan coast, the International Organization for Migration said in late March.

More than 24,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Libya during the first three months of the year, up from 18,000 during the same period last year, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

By Ella Ide