Medicinal cannabis: Legalised yet impossible to access
It became lawful for the NHS to prescribe marijuana in November, yet as Harry Sumnall discovers, its impact has been felt by very few people
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
On 1 November 2018, the UK changed the law on medicinal cannabis. Medicinal cannabis products were moved from schedule 1, meaning they have no medicinal value, to schedule 2, which allowed doctors to prescribe them under certain circumstances. This change to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 was partly a response to a rapid evidence review by the chief medical officer, which concluded that some medicinal cannabis products were effective for some medical conditions, and partly due to formal advice from the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to change the schedule. Since the rescheduling, many NHS patients have been frustrated by what they see as a slow and bureaucratic system that has denied them access to cannabis treatments.
