Patients will be allowed to use cannabis oil – if panel of doctors agrees

AN expert panel of doctors is to be given the power to decide whether patients should get a ‘personal licence’ to use medicinal cannabis.

England’s chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies would lead the group advising the Government on applications to prescribe the drugs, which are illegal.

Home Office Minister Nick Hurd caved in yesterday following widespread outrage over the case of epileptic Billy Caldwell, 12, whose illegal supply of cannabis oil was seized by customs officers last week.

Billy has relied on the oil to suppress up to 100 seizures a day, and had travelled to Canada with his mother, Charlotte, to buy a six-month supply. But when Miss Caldwell, 50, declared the drug at Heathrow last Monday, it was seized.

Without his daily dose, which had kept him free of seizures for 250 days, Billy’s health deteriorated rapidly and he was rushed to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London following a series of potentially fatal fits.

As a result, Home Secretary Sajid Javid granted the hospital a special 35-day licence to give Billy the oil.

Miss Caldwell, from Castlederg, County Tyrone, has demanded an urgent review of the law on the medicinal drug, which is used legally to treat patients in more than 20 countries, including Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and much of the US. But it is illegal to prescribe or use it in Britain – even though the UK is a major producer.

Giving an urgent statement to the Commons yesterday, Mr Hurd said the case had ‘shone a light’ on the issue of cannabisbased medicine.

He added that he was ‘absolutely serious’ about carrying out an urgent review into whether the laws on cannabis-based medicines should be relaxed.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt went to the Commons to announce that Dame Sally will establish a panel of expert clinicians to advise ministers on any individual applications for cannabis-based medications.

He said the system would involve ‘individual licences on exceptional cases’, but added that it would be irresponsible to allow people to use ‘unregulated and untested’ products.

The Government’s response to the issue appeared confused yesterday.

At first, Mr Hunt suggested that Mr Javid had already begun a review, which was denied by the Home Office.

Mr Javid then clashed with Theresa May during a Cabinet meeting, telling ministers it was essential to discuss Billy’s case.

Sources said the PM tried to close down the debate, insisting that the issue was not on the agenda for the meeting. But Mr Javid repeatedly asked her to reconsider. One source said Mr Javid ‘would not take “it is not on the agenda” for an answer’.

Following the clash, Mrs May later suggested that the Government would look only into the operation of the current system of licences for use in individual cases, rather than reviewing the law more widely.

But many MPs called for a legislation change.

Labour backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi said two children in her constituency – aged six and one – had a life-limiting condition and could ‘benefit hugely’ from medicinal cannabis.

Other MPs also raised cases, including that of six-year- old epileptic Alfie Dingley from Warwickshire, whose family is awaiting a Government decision on whether he can use cannabis oil medication.

Conservative former minister Sir Mike Penning said he would personally fetch medicines to treat Alfie if they had not been made available by Wednesday.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith told of a woman with a brain tumour who, after being given two weeks to live, used a form of the drug to get rid of the growth. He said: ‘There clearly are medicinal preparations that can be used.

‘In the health department, it is still not considered a good thing to investigate the medicinal properties of this drug.’

But Tory MP Caroline Johnson, a consultant paediatrician, said scientific tests on animals had suggested it could cause ‘significant psychological problems such as psychosis if used over a long period of time’.

After Mr Hurd’s announcement, Miss Caldwell said the Government had ‘crumbled under the pressure of the families who know best’.

She told the PM show on BBC Radio 4: ‘It sounds to me as though the MPs throughout the House recognise how historic this moment is.’

‘MPs recognise how historic this moment is’