Tipperary woman cannot afford higher dosage of prescribed cannabis for chronic pain

Cannabis prescribed through a medical licence does not fall under the Drug Payment Scheme

Aimee Brown was prescribed a 30g dose of medical cannabis for three months, with a 60g dose to be prescribed for her from March to treat chronic pain associated with endometriosis. File picture: Don Moloney

An endometriosis sufferer who received a ministerial licence for prescribed cannabis last December will have to forego a stronger dose due to start next month because she cannot afford it.

Aimee Brown, who lives in Tipperary, was prescribed a 30g dose of medical cannabis for three months, with a 60g dose to be prescribed for her from March to treat chronic pain associated with endometriosis. However, the medication is costing her €249.50 per month for a 30g dose and she does not qualify for the Drug Payment Scheme as cannabis prescribed through a medical licence does not fall under the scheme.

Ms Brown, who had campaigned for access to medical cannabis for her condition, says: “I can’t afford to go up (in her prescription) because then it would be double – it would be €500 per month and I definitely can’t afford that. 

It just means my quality of life is suffering as a result. I never had so much freedom in terms of not being on strong medications and opioids and it is really sad that it is the financial part that is getting in my way now.

Under the ministerial licence programme, a medical consultant can apply to prescribe cannabis to a patient who has not responded to standard treatments. However, if Ms Brown was being prescribed under the Medical Cannabis Access Programme (MCAP), she would have been able to avail of the Drug Payment Scheme. 

MCAP covers the prescribing of cannabis-based products by medical consultants, for patients with certain medical conditions who have exhausted all other available medical treatment options for three conditions - spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis; intractable nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, and severe refractory (treatment-resistant) epilepsy.

The Health Service Executive will reimburse eligible people who access a cannabis product under the Ministerial licencing route only if prescribed for one of the three medical indications included in the MCAP.

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Chronic pain is currently not included in MCAP. A review of the MCAP is currently underway, with the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly outlining two weeks ago in an answer to a parliamentary question that the review is due for completion “by mid-year”. 

He added: “A clinical review group will be formed to evaluate this evidence and to complete an assessment of the MCAP programme.” Ms Brown wants chronic pain to be included in the list of conditions under the MCAP programme.

She said: 

If chronic pain would be included, I wouldn’t have this issue. People getting it (medical cannabis) through ministerial licence are getting no support.

While she says that medical cannabis has helped her pain, she is recovering from surgery in Bucharest relating to endometriosis seven weeks ago and is currently on sick leave from her part time job in retail.

She had queried whether she could get assistance for her medication costs under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance but was told in recent days she could not be given an Exceptional Needs Payment to assist her because her medication costs are not considered a “once-off exceptional need”.