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Research to shed light on how UK clinicians view medical cannabis

UK medical professionals are invited to take part in a new ​​outreach project

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Psychology student and addiction expert, Hallie Heeg, is collaborating with Drug Science on the project

A new research project aims to get to the bottom of why many UK clinicians are still reluctant to prescribe medical cannabis.

Medical cannabis patient and psychology student, Hallie Heeg, is inviting UK medical professionals to participate in a new ​​outreach project, which aims to shed light on their views and knowledge around prescribing medical cannabis.

Heeg, who is originally from the US, has more than a decade of experience working in the field of addiction and eating disorder recovery – which enlightened her to the role cannabis can play in holistic healing.

After entering recovery from an eating disorder herself in 2006, Heeg began managing rehab clinics and went onto work for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the largest non-profit addiction and mental health programme in the States. 

“In the addiction field it’s drugs or no drugs, it’s very black and white, but I started seeing people who were sober, using psychedelics for trauma work in a clinical way – but they were having to keep it hidden,” she says.

“I got really frustrated by that, because if as clinicians, their creed was to do no harm and to put the patient first, we should be looking at all these different types of modalities and different medications and not just putting our beliefs into one.”

Heeg self-medicated for many years before accessing a cannabis prescription, finding that it helped ease her anxiety and quieten the negative thoughts of her eating disorder. 

“I’ve used it throughout the years, but more from a recreational perspective,” she explains.

“[When I got my prescription] I started seeing my anxiety decrease, I started seeing the negative thoughts going away and I was having a healthier relationship with food. Slowly I was able to reduce the prescription drugs I was on.”

The question of why

Moving to the UK after meeting her husband, Heeg got a coaching certificate and founded her own coaching and intervention service, WeRise, to continue supporting patients through recovery. Last year, she went on to enrol on a Masters programme in psychology at the University of East London.

For her dissertation she has collaborated with the UK’s drug reform charity, Drug Science, to try to understand the attitudes of clinicians towards medical cannabis.

“There are something like 1.4 million medical cannabis users in the UK, however, that’s typically those who have to source it from the illegal market,” she says.

“I really want to understand why people aren’t prescribing and why the numbers on the illicit market are so big in the UK, but yet the amount of medical cannabis users being able to access it legally is so small.”

The first step in the project is a five minute, anonymous survey for doctors and prescribing nurses across the country.

“There are not a lot of studies around medical cannabis in terms of doctor’s knowledge, particularly in the UK, because it is so new,” says Heeg.

“Myself and Drug Science are hoping to raise awareness around this and from a patient advocate standpoint, but equally from a medical and research standpoint, help inform them on how they could actually become prescribers.”

She adds: “It will also help us with making decisions and determining policies, by really understanding what the views of the medical community are, why they believe this and how we can debunk any myths around it.”

Hallie Heeg has worked in addiction for over a decade

Medical cannabis and eating disorders

After completing her Masters, Heeg plans to open her own eating disorder clinic and treatment centre. 

Having seen the benefits of medical cannabis both personally and through her clients, she would like to see more research and discussion around its use in these conditions.

“I really have seen great results with it, typically in anorexics and bulimics, and my hope is that we can play a part in doing more research around that,” she says.

“Every week we hear about how eating disorder services are in crisis, there’s a shortage of beds, the number of adolescents struggling is rising – it’s the number one mortality among any mental illness. And yet we don’t seem to put a lot of effort into research around that when it comes to medical cannabis.”

However, her colleagues in the field – and that of addiction – have been reluctant to engage so far.

“When I sent my survey out to those contacts, I got several responses back saying ‘I work in addiction, why would I take the survey?’ And since I sent it out to my eating disorder network, I haven’t gotten a response back,” says Heeg.

“It feels a little vulnerable for me to kind of put this research out there, because there’s a community that I’ve been a part of that also looks at it as this gateway drug.”

She adds: “It’s been challenging, to be honest with you, to find clinicians who are even interested in taking a survey with the word medical cannabis in.”

Doctors and prescribing nurses in the UK can complete the anonymous survey here

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Sarah Sinclair is a respected cannabis journalist writing on subjects related to science, medicine, research, health and wellness. She is managing editor of Cannabis Health, the UK’s leading title covering medical cannabis and CBD, and sister titles, Cannabis Wealth and Psychedelic Health. Sarah has an NCTJ journalism qualification and an MA in Journalism from the University of Sunderland. Sarah has over six years experience working on newspapers, magazines and digital-first titles, the last two of which have been in the cannabis sector. She has also completed training through the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society securing a certificate in Medical Cannabis Explained. She is a member of PLEA’s (Patient-Led Engagement for Access) advisory board, has hosted several webinars on cannabis and women's health and has moderated at industry events such as Cannabis Europa. Sarah Sinclair is the editor of Cannabis Health. Got a story? Email sarah@handwmedia.co.uk / Follow us on Twitter: @CannabisHNews / Instagram: @cannabishealthmag

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