Two years after medicinal cannabis was made legal in Britain many doctors were still not prescribing it.

And although it was still early days, with only one medical cannabis product approved for use in New Zealand, our GPs appeared to be in the same camp.

British psychiatrist David Nutt is the author of new research on prescription trends of cannabis-based products, and said it was outrageous that people were being denied what he called life-changing medication for some.

He said up until last century, cannabis was a medicine.

“Cannabis was formally banned under the 1961 UN Convention and it was said to have no medical value, but it was a medicine and stayed as medicine in Britain until 1971.”

The long-time campaigner for the use of medical cannabis said reluctance to prescribe was linked to a lack of knowledge.

“Countries like Britain and New Zealand keep it out of the pharmacopoeia because they still believe it’s a dangerous drug, which it isn’t, and they believe if you make it a dangerous drug people will mis-use it, which they generally don’t.”

Cannabis became legal medicine in New Zealand in April.

One of New Zealand’s newest medical cannabis companies, Tauranga based Eqalis, said a medical diagnosis was needed in order to get the full effect of medical cannabis, for the condition being treated. [Read more @ RNZ]