The UK’s NHS Refuses to Prescribe Medicinal Cannabis
A RECENT freedom of information request by The Guardian revealed that no new NHS patients have been prescribed cannabis since its legalisation for medical use in 2018. Many protests and petitions have been organised since - mainly by parents of epileptic children - but the voices have been ignored and no tangible action has been taken. Neither the government nor the NHS are willing to take full responsibility for the situation surrounding medicinal cannabis in the UK.
This has resulted in only wealthy families being able to access cannabis medicines, as in practice, a prescription is only obtainable privately for a minimum of £2,000 a month. Last year a desperate mother had to sell her house in order to continue to afford her daughter’s treatment for a severe form of epilepsy. Elaine Levy’s daughter, Fallon Levy, suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome - but no longer needs a wheelchair and has had a huge improvement in quality of life since using cannabis-based medicines. In this case, and many other similar cases, the NHS has failed in their duty of care to these patients.
Why has this happened? Many NHS Trusts have quoted funding issues as a problem, however the reality is using the cannabis-based medicines avoids the use of more expensive opioid based medicines - and also keeps the relevant patients out of hospitals, reducing the burden on hospital beds and ambulances. The use of cannabis could also mean less unpleasant side effects for patients, however the British Paediatric Neurology Association has stated a lack of clinical research and the lack of understanding between cannabis and psychosis as being major obstacles. Their position, which has not changed for 2 years, states “anecdotal reports should not determine treatment policy for the population as a whole and products with high concentrations of THC may cause significant damage to the developing brain. Consequently the BPNA does not recommend their use.”
A recent white paper co-authored by Professor Mike Barnes hopes to directly tackle this stance. The paper states that a huge barrier stopping doctors prescribing cannabis-based medicines is simply education. Doctors currently lack knowledge of the endocannabinoid system, and therefore struggle to prescribe something they do not understand. The other barrier is the difficulty in reaching the gold standard of clinical trials with such a complex botanical product - over 112 cannabinoids, interacting with over 100 terpenes means an extremely large amount of molecules (and molecule combinations) to study. The paper states that all methods of research need to be taken into account, such as Project Twenty21, a registry which collects data on medical cannabis efficacy through anecdotal and other forms of evidence which do not fit the framework of clinical trials.
As well as scientists and activists MPs have also campaigned for change with little luck. Tory MP Sir Mike Penning, co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Access to Medical Cannabis Under Prescription has questioned the lack of any clear progress on the issue. Last month, he told The Independent "everyone knows [the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care] Matt Hancock has a lot on but this situation has been dragging on since long before Covid".
Brexit, Covid, and other agenda-dominating issues have been used to excuse the lack of progress in cannabis medicines and their integration into the UK health services. But this lack of progress is an everyday struggle for the severely epileptic children and their parents/carers - and for anyone else suffering from the many conditions for which cannabis can provide relief and comfort. So far, legalisation of medical cannabis in the UK has severely failed patients.