BANGKOK,
Sept 2 (TNA) – Three hospitals have started prescribing drugs, containing
cannabis extract on the first day today after the Public Health Ministry sent the
narcotic-based drugs to 13 hospitals to cure patients with insomnia and boost their
appetite.
Director-General of the Department of Thai Traditional and
Alternative Medicine, Marut Jirasetsiri said that Government Pharmaceutical
Organization (GPO) sent 1,950 sachets of this traditional medicine formula to
13 Thai traditional medicine hospitals nationwide.
Each hospital received 150 sachets. Only three hospitals
prescribed this cannabis-derived drug at the doctors’ discretion today.
Patients who will receive the narcotic-based drug must undergo
kidney and liver function tests and have neither records of drug addiction nor
mental illness. They will be allowed to use the new drug formula after they do
not respond to conventional or other treatments.
Follow-up
evaluation on the patients’ condition and the efficacy of the treatment will be
done by hospital staff every one or two weeks.
Regarding the plan to distribute marijuana oil, originally produced
by a folk medicine practitioner, Daycha Siripatra, the director-general said
the oil is being considered by the Ethics Committee of the Public Health Ministry.
The decision will be made with two weeks, he added. – (TNA)
