Hannah and Mike are back with another episode of What’s Your Why, in which they sit down with Dr Anne Katrin Schlag PhD to discuss her research on medical cannabis with Drug Science.
Anne is a Chartered Psychologist and holds Honorary Senior Fellowships at both Imperial College London and King’s College London.
As Acting CEO and Head of Research at the charity Drug Science, she leads the research for Drug Science’s Medical Cannabis and Medical Psychedelics Working Groups, publishing widely in both areas.
Over the last few years Anne has also co-authored numerous papers from Drug Science’s T21 (formerly Project Twenty21) patient registry, which launched in 2019 to make medical cannabis more accessible and collect crucial real-world data on its safety and efficacy.
The scheme came to a close last year with over 5,000 patients enrolled, prescribed cannabis-based medicines for a variety of physical and mental health conditions.
Through her work with the Drug Science team, Anne’s findings have highlighted the positive effects and promising potential of cannabis-based medicines for a wide range of chronic conditions.
In this episode she discusses the importance of real-world evidence in addition to randomised control trials, especially for botanical medicines such as cannabis, and calls on regulators to place more value on this.
“We’re finding out through real-world evidence things that could not be found through randomised control trials.
The number of patients is huge, both nationally and internationally, so really this real-world evidence should be used by regulators such as NICE in terms of decision making and making recommendations.”
As a mum-of-three, Anne also opens up about her own views on drug policy more broadly and how she hopes to foster an environment for open and honest conversations about drugs with her own children as they grow up.
“It’s quite shocking the nonsense that is still being taught in school,” she adds. “We try to keep the lines of communication open and encourage them to come and talk to us and ask questions.”
Hear more from Hannah and Mike’s interview with Anne below or via your usual podcast app.
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