Use of medical cannabis in the country more than doubles in 2021, according to association

Orders for imports of medical cannabis products more than doubled in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to a survey by BRCANN (Brazilian Association of the Cannabinoid Industry).

In the last year, 40,191 new requests were made to import medicines containing CBD (cannabidiol), 110% more than in 2020, when 19,150 imports were accounted for.

In previous years, new requests for drug use had already been growing, with 1,392 in 2017, 2,371 in 2018 and 8,522 in 2019, but the explosion occurred during the last two years of the pandemic.

According to experts, Covid has influenced the search for CBD-based drugs to treat various conditions, such as chronic pain, fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety and sleep disorders.

For Tarso Araújo, director of BRCANN, the pandemic brought problems such as reduced mobility due to confinement and, mainly, depression. “We know that confinement causes depression, which can be a trigger for some conditions, such as fibromyalgia. CBD works by controlling symptoms that appear in these different situations”, he explains.

According to Araújo, the greatest demand in recent years by patients also comes from a greater demand for information. “It is the patients themselves who look for ways to alleviate their symptoms and discover the therapeutic benefits of CBD. What we still face, unfortunately, is a resistance on the part of the medical profession to recognize the benefit”, he says.

Physiatrist and pain doctor Caio Rondon is one of the specialists who has seen an increase in the demand for care for the indication of cannabidiol therapy. “If in 2017 I had one patient a month seeking information about CBD, today I get two a day,” he said.

However, here the issue directly collides with the type of medical specialty that can, according to the 2014 CFM (Federal Council of Medicine) resolution, prescribe drugs based on cannabis medicinal. There are three specialties: neurologists, psychiatrists and neurosurgeons.

In 2015, a cannabis-based drug was approved for the first time by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) for the treatment of epilepsy in children and, since 2019, another 18 products have already been approved by the agency in a category that allows temporary importation. of drugs.

Previously, children under 10 years of age diagnosed with epilepsy accounted for about 80% of orders for imports of CBD medicines, according to the national agency. Today, children in this age group make up 9.2% of patients on medical orders, while adults over 61 are 31.2%, and adults 21-40 are 25.5%.

Rondon claims that the body of evidence on the benefits of medical cannabis grows every year and that this pursuit of CBD is the main factor that has caused import orders to explode over the past three years.

According to him, the improvement in the import process by Anvisa, based on a resolution published in November 2021, reduced the waiting time for the drug to arrive in the country from three months to 20 days. “This process comes with a greater demand, and we are moving towards an increasingly simplified process. I believe that in five years we will reach the same pace of already consolidated markets such as Canada and Germany, which sell CBD medicines in the pharmacy”, he said. .

INCREASED DEMAND BY ADULTS AND ELDERLY

For the director of BRCANN, the search for CBD in adults is a reflection of the portion of the population living with some type of chronic pain. “There is a condition that is neuropathic pain, for which there is already evidence of CBD use, and it affects about 1.5% of the population,” he says.

One of these patients is Maria Lizandra Dias, 47, who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia eight years ago. With no improvement in quality of life with conventional treatment, she says the crippling pain made even the most mundane tasks difficult. “I had lost the will to live, I couldn’t do anything. I started taking CBD and got my life back,” she said.

Specialists, however, emphasize that double-blind and randomized studies (gold standard in medicine) still do not have evidence for the treatment of chronic pain and fibromyalgia, only for neuropathic pain. However, as patients have improved quality of life, the indication in this case ends up being favorable.

Another who saw improvement in her pain was the biologist and professor at the Universidade Federal do ABC Priscila Barreto de Jesus, 36, who has a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and migraine and started treatment with CBD in January this year. “I noticed a significant improvement in migraine, and we are already doing the ‘weaning’ from conventional drugs”, she says.

In addition to the direct improvement in pain, CBD has a side effect that ends up being desired at a time when about 26% of the population has a diagnosis of anxiety and sleep disorders, according to data from the World Health Organization: it causes sleep.

“My sleep, my mood, all of that was regularized”, says Maria Lizandra.

According to some studies that summarize the available literature on the effects of cannabidiol in the treatment of chronic pain and fibromyalgia, there is an improvement in quality of life, mood and also in the sensation of pain in about 50% of patients.

USE AGAINST PARKINSON

These new findings add to the best available scientific evidence on cannabis use as a treatment for epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Improved sleep is something that ends up helping older patients who use it as a therapy against Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

João Carlos Di Giorgi, 79, has lived with Parkinson’s for 23 years. His son, journalist Danilo Di Giorgi, 45, sought CBD after being referred by a friend whose father had Alzheimer’s and used it. cannabis therapy. “We started about four years ago and my father had a significant improvement in his quality of life,” she says.

The use of medical cannabis, however, has an uneven character in the country, with about 73% of requests concentrated in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Paraná and the Federal District.

With this in mind, Cassiano Gomes founded, in 2017 in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Abrace Esperança, a non-profit association with the aim of supporting family members and patients who use medical cannabis.

In the same year, the NGO received authorization to cultivate, produce and supply cannabidiol, and currently serves more than 32,000 patients, being the only producer in Brazil authorized to make CBD, although it still uses imported raw materials. Most users who seek Embrace are to treat family members with Alzheimer’s.

Di Giorgi acquires CBD oil from Embrace for his father’s treatment. “I think the amount of prejudice and misinformation that we experience here is absurd. While there is a vast amount of studies produced in different countries, which could be used to facilitate access and offer better treatment for people, we ended up being stuck with a lack sensitivity of governments”, he says.