Regulation
Charities in the UK to Protest Poor Medical Cannabis Access
Tomorrow, some high level charities in the UK will be joining protests to demonstrate failure of the NHS to provide medical cannabis to patients. The protests that have been planned for 22nd February will be held at the House of Lords which is the second chamber of parliament in the UK.
The UK legalized cannabis for medicinal use on 1st November, 2018 after the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed a new law to move cannabis from schedule 1 to schedule 2. The home secretary was moved by two specific cases of children with severe seizures who got significant relief from medical cannabis. He had the following to say:
“Having been moved by heartbreaking cases involving sick children, it was important to me that we took swift action to help those who can benefit from medicinal cannabis. We have now delivered on our promise and specialist doctors will have the option to prescribe these products where there is a real need. I’m grateful to the expert panel – who have been considering cases in the interim – and to those who’ve worked hard to bring about this change at the earliest possible opportunity.”
Unfortunately, things have not panned out the way that they should have, three years on. So far, only three medical cannabis prescriptions have been issued. The event that will be held tomorrow will highlight some of these issues and possibly spark conversations that will bring about positive change.
Three leading groups will be hosting this event: Drug Science, Patient Led Engagement for Access (PLEA), and Medcan Support. It hopes to bring together UK charities and members of parliament to discuss the failure of the NHS to issue prescriptions for medical cannabis.
Members of these charities have expressed different expectations from this event. Some have expressed the desire to get to the root of the problem because many people in the UK need the prescription for pain and other reasons. Plausible reasons could be stigma, high cost, or a lack of understanding on how the system works.
Laura Cockram from Parkinson’s UK, has expressed that she wants to see how charities can support regulators to improve the accessibility of medical cannabis to patients with chronic conditions. Dr Lydia E Makaroff, PhD from Fight Bladder Cancer has urged healthcare professionals to do the medical cannabis e-learning module which is available through Health Education England free of charge. She has also emphasized the importance of supporting clinicians to make medical cannabis prescriptions where it is necessary through the NHS.” She will be attending the event that is scheduled for tomorrow.
