Airing Pain 114: You, Your Drugs, and the Law: Gabapentinoids and medicinal cannabis

How does the law affect peo­ple who use drugs to man­age their pain?

This edi­tion is fund­ed by Foun­da­tion Scotland

On 1 April 2019 Pre­ga­balin and Gabapentin, drugs rec­om­mend­ed for the man­age­ment of neu­ro­path­ic pain, were re-clas­si­fied as class C con­trolled substances.

Med­i­c­i­nal Cannabis: Is it safe? Does it work for pain? Is it legal?
Where do peo­ple who use these drugs to man­age their chron­ic pain now stand with­in UK law?

Issues cov­ered in this pro­gramme include: Cannabi­noids, cannabis, epilep­sy, seizures, drugs, med­ica­tion, pol­i­cy, gabapentin, clas­si­fi­ca­tion, legal­i­ty, pre­scrip­tion, neu­ro­path­ic pain, pre­ga­balin, Sched­ule One drugs and Sched­ule Two drugs.

Con­trib­u­tors:

• Blair Smith, Con­sul­tant in Pain Med­i­cine at NHS Tay­side, and Nation­al Lead Clin­i­cian for Chron­ic Pain in Scotland
• Steve Alexan­der, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor in Mol­e­c­u­lar Phar­ma­col­o­gy at Not­ting­ham University
• Cameron Rashide who lives with neu­ro­path­ic pain.