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Pain Specialist to Examine Cannabinoids Versus Opioids at Frankfurt Symposium
Whether cannabinoid medicines could offer a better overall treatment option than opioids for some people with chronic pain will be examined at a medical cannabis conference in Frankfurt this November.
Michael Ueberall, Medical Director at the Center of Excellence in Health Care Research / Institute of Neurological Sciences, will speak at the Cannabis Health Symposium Frankfurt on 4 November.
His session, “Cannabinoids vs Opioids: A New Effective Class of Treatment for Chronic Pain?”, will compare the two drug classes across pain relief, function, sleep, tolerability, treatment persistence and long-term risk.
Ueberall said: “Chronic pain does not need another ‘winning’ drug class. It needs treatments that deliver meaningful benefit to the right patient. I look forward to discussing whether cannabinoid medicines can help us get closer to that goal.”
Ueberall described chronic pain as “one of healthcare’s largest unmet needs” and said pharmacological innovation had “lagged behind other major disease areas”.
He said opioids had occupied a “prominent – and increasingly controversial – role” in the treatment of severe chronic pain for decades, while cannabinoid-based medicines were now “challenging this paradigm”.
Rather than asking which drug class is “stronger”, Ueberall said the more clinically relevant question was “which treatment provides the greatest overall benefit for which patient?”
It comes after the first cannabinoid-based medicine developed specifically for chronic lower back pain received market authorisation in Germany and Austria earlier this year.
Secure your place
The Cannabis Health Symposium Frankfurt takes place at Mainhaus on 4 November 2026 and will bring together healthcare professionals, researchers, industry and patient advocates to discuss medical cannabis evidence, prescribing, regulation and patient access.
Secure your place at the Cannabis Health Symposium Frankfurt here.
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