Academy that teaches doctors how to use medicinal cannabis that claims ‘smoking joints soothes pains’ is owned by tycoons set to make millions out of the drug
- Boss, neurologist Professor Mike Barnes, could make millions from selling shares
- AMC is owned by European Cannabis Holdings that invested to make a profit
By STEPHEN ADAMS HEALTH CORRESPONDENT FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
UPDATED: 11 January 2019
A supposedly independent ‘academy’ set up to teach doctors about how cannabis can be used as a medicine is owned by financiers looking to make millions from the drug, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The self-styled Academy of Medical Cannabis (ACM) purports to offer doctors impartial advice about how it can be used to help people with pain, epilepsy and other conditions.
It suggests patients smoke joints to soothe neurological conditions and eat gummy bears laced with the drug.
Launched last November, it describes itself as ‘a free and independent platform for all medical professionals to use’.
But it is actually part of a ‘portfolio’ of interests owned by European Cannabis Holdings (ECH), a company which seeks to ‘invest’ in the cannabis industry to create ‘significant value for our shareholders’.
A supposedly independent ‘academy’ set up to teach doctors about how cannabis can be used as a medicine is owned by financiers looking to make millions from the drug. File image used
Only on the academy website’s terms and conditions page is the link with ECH mentioned at all — and only then referring to it as ‘European C Holdings’.
Last night, leading doctors said the academy had a duty to come clean about its financial backers — and criticised its teachings on cannabis as ‘biased’ and ‘frankly dangerous’. The ACM’s director of education is neurologist Professor Mike Barnes.
The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that he is set to become a millionaire by selling a stake in his company — which has imported cannabis to the UK for medical use — to a Canadian marijuana conglomerate.
Another part of ECH’s portfolio is a market research company called Prohibition Partners, which recently forecast Europe’s legal cannabis market would be worth €116 billion (£104 billion) a year by 2028.
One section titled ‘How to ingest’ suggests methods including vaping the drug, taking capsules and oils, applying creams or patches containing cannabis, smoking joints and eating cannabis ‘edibles’, illustrated with an image of gummy bears.
The site also compares smoking cannabis favourably to smoking tobacco, stating: ‘Unlike tobacco, there is no hard evidence that smoking cannabis causes lung cancer.’
In another module Dr Bonikowski cites studies in which patients with neurological problems smoked cannabis, with favourable results, but in the video he gives no caution about this method not being medically recommended.
Sam Ahmedzai, Professor Emeritus of palliative care at Sheffield University who reviewed a video on the Academy’s website said, said: ‘This implied condoning of taking cannabis by smoking joints without being accompanied by any ‘health warning’, strikes me as misleading, irresponsible, and frankly dangerous.’
He was also concerned the content appeared to cherry-pick studies which came to positive conclusions about cannabis use.
For complete story https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6561831/Academy-Medical-Cannabis-owned-European-tycoons-make-millions-drug.html