– It takes away the strength, will, remnants of energy – the actor and director Jerzy Sthur spoke about the pain that accompanied him in the fight against cancer. And prof. Jan Dobrogowski, president of the Polish Society for the Study of Pain, emphasizes that reducing pain enhances the effects of treating many diseases. And there is no doubt: “If the suffering is exhausting, the doctor should be able to prescribe cannabinoids to the sick person.”
In Poland, patients suffering from chronic pain could not count on effective treatment until yesterday. The problem concerns every fifth Pole, about 20 percent. society suffers from chronic pain, and 5 percent. due to acute pain following surgery or trauma. Chronic pain is said to last for 3 months.
The notoriety of the cannabinoids
A big obstacle on the way to effective pain treatment in our country is the widespread cannabinoidophobia, i.e. the fear of marijuana-based drugs. Pain doctors believe that the notoriety of these pharmaceuticals is linked to the use of the phrase “medical marijuana”. In pharmacology, the name of a substance that has a healing effect, not a plant, should be used. And the substances contained in marijuana, i.e. cannabinoids, are very effective in some types of pain, such as neuropathic or cancerous, they also have anti-sickness properties during chemotherapy and are helpful in the treatment of some types of epilepsy. If we use professional terminology, the conversation from the worldview and emotional level will transfer to the substantive one in the field of medicine and pharmacology and only specialists will be able to participate in it.
According to Dr. Jarosław Woroń from the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the doctor should be able to prescribe cannabinoid, and the patient should buy it at a pharmacy. He adds that if a medical or pharmacy student uses the phrase narcotic painkillers in an examination for opioid or cannabinoid drugs, he will be sent back for a correction.
Pain relief heals
Pain therapy specialists emphasize that still many doctors are not aware that reducing pain enhances the effects of treatment. This is true not only of cancer but also of other diseases, incl. asthma, allergies or diabetes. – Fundamental in disease is mobilization to fight it. Meanwhile, pain takes away the strength, will, and remnants of energy – emphasizes the actor and director Jerzy Sthur, ambassador of the campaign “Let’s win with pain”. Dr. Jadwiga Pyszkowska, consultant of the Silesian and Opole voivodeships in the field of palliative medicine, adds that when the patient’s test results improve as a result of treatment, but he still feels pain, he ceases to trust his doctor, does not follow his recommendations and seeks help in paramedics. Remember, too, that other pain relievers, like all drugs, have side effects. – Although these drugs, unlike opioids or cannabinoids
are considered safe and many of them are available without a prescription, more people die than are killed in car accidents because of their use – says Dr. Woroń.
Time for changes
Doctors believe that the Ministry of Health, implementing its intention to improve pain treatment in Poland, must deal with the problem of access to cannabinoids. The neuropharmacologist Prof. Jerzy Vetulani from the Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences emphasized that the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids and synthetic drugs of similar structure contained in marijuana is enormous. – Equally huge, though unjustified, is the social fear and resistance to reaching for this natural source of drugs.
Fortunately, the law signed in the Sejm allows the sick to use the so-called medical marijuana. The preparations will be prepared for patients in pharmacies based on a prescription issued by a doctor. The raw material itself is to be imported from abroad.