Epileptic boy relying on cannabis oil from Canada gets U.K.’s approval

LONDON — The British government changed course on Saturday in a case concerning cannabis oil, saying an epileptic boy can be treated with it after his mother said he needed it to survive severe seizures.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he agreed to urgently issue a licence to allow Billy Caldwell, a 12-year-old from Northern Ireland, to be treated with the oil. He said his decision was based on advice from senior doctors who say that Caldwell, who was hospitalized overnight in London, faces a medical emergency.

Javid said the British government’s immediate priority was to make sure Caldwell receives “the most effective treatment possible in a safe way.”

The case has revived the debate over medical marijuana in Britain, where it is banned. Border Force agents seized it from Charlotte Caldwell, the boy’s mother, when she tried to bring it into London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday from Canada, where she obtained it legally.

She said Billy suffered two severe seizures overnight and that the cannabis oil is the only substance that can prevent lifethreatening seizures for him. He began the treatment in the U.S. legally two years ago.

Charlotte Caldwell says the oil has kept Billy seizure-free for more than 300 days.

He became the first person in the U.K. with a prescription for cannabis oil when it was recommended to him by a local doctor in Northern Ireland. But the doctor stopped prescribing cannabis oil after being warned by the Home Office.

Charlotte Caldwell said on Saturday that she and her supporters had “achieved the impossible” and called for a rules change to allow other children needing cannabis oil to use it legally.