Behind the scenes of Media Storm!

Explicit content warning

06/08/23 • 22 min

In this week’s bonus episode, Helena and Mathilda have an announcement to make... they have started a Patreon! You can access it at https://www.patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast

This is a chance for us to build a community space for our Media Storm listeners, where we can discuss ideas, share bonus material and get to know you all a little better! It’s also a chance for you to contribute to the work being done at Media Storm, if and how you can.

In this bonus episode, we’re also trialling some new bonus material as requested by listeners. You’ll hear an uncut interview from last week’s investigation about 'Medical cannabis and the criminalisation of chronic pain'. If you haven’t yet heard it, we encourage you to go back and listen first.

This raw material features our full-length interview with Dr Steve Hajioff, who will tell you all you need to know about how cannabis regulation works in the UK, and how cannabis interacts with the body to produce medicinal effects. It should also gives you some sense of just how much interview time goes into a single one of our investigations - which typically contain five or more interviews like this, all cut together in a 20-minute adventure!

Get in touch and let us know what kind of bonus material you’d like to see - whether it’s raw material like this, more episodes of our ‘This Is How You Do It’ interview series featuring media change makers, offcuts from studio discussions, Q&As with listeners, or anything else at all. You can reach us at [email protected] or on social media @mediastormpod.

The episode is created by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia). The music is by Samfire (@soundofsamfire).

Previous Episode

S3E3 Medical cannabis: The criminalisation of chronic pain - with StevoTheMadMan

Chronic pain is a silent pandemic affecting somewhere between 8 and 28 million people in the UK alone. Recent headlines (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65596283) reveal it’s contributing to 2.5 million Brits leaving work. But more alarming still, is our response.

The UK prescribes more opioid pain killers per capita than any other country in the world. This is in spite of NHS guidelines warning against its use for chronic pain. It is also in spite of a US opioid crisis that has plagued the nation with half a million fatal overdoses.

But opioids are not the only option. Medical cannabis has been legal in the UK for almost five years, yet fewer than five people have ever been prescribed it on the NHS for chronic pain. Private clinics, by contrast, have issued over 89,000 prescriptions for unlicensed cannabis medicines not available on the NHS.

Those who cannot afford private healthcare are left with a difficult choice: legal opioids, or illegal cannabinoids. And over a million are choosing the latter. Join us as we explore the UK’s thriving black medical market, meeting patients, police officers, doctors and dealers.

We also hear from those driving the UK's legal market in the face of many barriers, such as Arthur Wakeley, Managing Director of Celadon Pharmaceuticals Plc, and patients on their breakthrough clinical trial, who are fighting to spread awareness and acceptance of a plant that has been medically celebrated around the world for centuries, but painted as the world's worst drug in our own.

Mathilda and Helena are joined in the studio by football pro and chronic pain warrior Stevo (@stevothemadman: also known for his unhinged comedy stunts storming social media!). They examine the mainstream media’s approach to medical cannabis, asking questions of accuracy, balance and blatant mistruths.

The episode is created by Mathilda Mallinson (@mathildamall) and Helena Wadia (@helenawadia). The music is by Samfire (@soundofsamfire).

Guests

Maria Kalinowska @m.a.kamera
Arthur Wakeley @CeladonPharmaceuticals (LinkedIn)
Jon Robson @mamedicauk
Stevo the Madman @stevothemadman

Sources

Chronic pain figures: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/ https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20130105021744/http:/www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports/DH_096206
Licensed cannabis medicines UK https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/improving-care/better-mh-policy/position-statements/ps05_19.pdf?sfvrsn=2db968d3_2
Unlicensed cannabis prescription figures UK https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2023-01-06.117459.h&s=cannabis
UK opioid prescriptions https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00479-X/fulltext#%20
US opioid deaths https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html
NHS chronic pain guidelines https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193/chapter/Recommendations#managing-chronic-primary-pain
Scale and cost of UK black market https://news.sky.com/story/rise-in-people-using-cannabis-to-treat-health-conditions-but-doctors-warn-patients-are-putting-themselves-at-risk-12828381
Cannabis addiction rates https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2797098/

Next Episode

S3E4 Strikes: What have trade unions ever done for me? - with Mick Whelan

Hey listeners! We've launched a Patreon. If you want to support us for a small monthly fee, head to patreon.com/MediaStormPodcast

What words come to mind when you hear the word 'strikes'? Delays, cancellations, chaos? With 'misery for ordinary people!' brandished across our headlines, it’s easy to see strikes as a general nuisance. But this week's episode of Media Storm looks beyond the everyday grumblings of train delays and travel chaos, to ask the question “what have trade unions ever done for me?”

Spoiler alert - quite a lot it seems.

Focussing on three key areas of union achievements - health & safety rights, wage increases, and equal pay - we speak to strikers standing on the shoulders of the first trade unionists. Hear from a Bristol midwife struggling with poor conditions who felt balloting for industrial action was the only answer, the then 23-year-old leader if the 2017 McStrike (who got the date tattooed on her arm!), and one of the warriors that won Glasgow women back almost three quarters of a billion pounds of stolen wages.

In the studio, we have General-Secretary of the ASLEF union Mick Whelan - who is no stranger to tough media rounds, to dissect the myths and latest headlines about strikes, unions, and workers - and tell us whether he really did schedule a rail strike over Eurovision...

Speakers: