Professor Michael Barnes is a consultant neurologist and medical cannabis expert who has dedicated his career to the development of neurological rehabilitation and medical cannabis awareness, education and clinical excellence.
Professor Barnes became intrigued by the positive results with cannabis several of his patients in U.K. multiple sclerosis and spasticity clinics were reporting. By chance, he says, GW pharmaceuticals asked for his help in the development of what turned out to be the first cannabis medicine, Sativex. Sativex was approved in the UK in 2010. A U.S. phase 3 trial is currently underway to test Sativex for multiple sclerosis spasticity.
In turn, he was asked by Hannah Deacon to get involved with what turned out to be the first prescription of cannabis in the UK for her son, Alfie Dingley. Their relentless advocacy for a U.K. medical cannabis program changed the law on November 1, 2018 to allow some doctors to prescribe medical cannabis.
“You need to understand the endocannabinoid system. It underpins every bodily function where any function is subserved by a nerve is controlled by the endocannabinoid system. That basically is all bodily functions. It’s so fundamental. And if people understood that, I think we’d have less stigma and just more understanding about the potential value of this medicine.”
Professor Barnes brings his expertise to a roundtable discussion with fellow global medical cannabis experts January 19, 2022, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm EST, for the CannabizMD webinar “Standardization of Cannabis Science for Healthcare Providers”.
