National –
Nearly 15,000 local patients have been slightly recovered with reportedly no side affects after visiting and being treated at medical marijuana clinics nationwide, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told the press yesterday, November 12.
The Minister, along with Public health authorities, reported the overall progress of establishing 311 medical cannabis clinics across the country during medical marijuana training for 150 doctors, pharmacists, and medical officers in Buriram province yesterday.
Anutin stated that modern medical marijuana clinics had now officially started to operate in central hospitals, general hospitals, and community hospitals nationwide under the authorization of the Public Health Ministry.
A total of 14,236 patients had visited the clinics for treatments about 35,495 times. Most of the patients, according to the Minister, had been suffering from palliative care cancers, Parkinson’s disease, neuropathic pain from treatment resistance, and insomnia. The patients’ follow-up results revealed that about 70 percent of the patients had been slightly recovered while 98.07 percent of them had not experienced any side effects from marijuana use.
Dr. Somsak Akasilp, the Director-general of the Medical Services Department, addressed that the knowledge of marijuana in medical use has been developed continuously since 2019 to keep the information up to date with recent medical researches before officially introducing a medical training course titled “The Use of Medical Cannabis Extract for Healthcare Professionals”.
It aims to provide healthcare and public health personnel mutual knowledge and understanding of the medical marijuana extract. There has been a total of 11,747 medical officers who had attended the training and were certified by the Department of Medicine and the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine before becoming a specialist to provide assistance to patients at the clinics.