The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Review of cannabis oil for medicinal purposes
Home Secretary reveals move to MPS after highprofile cases
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced a review of the medicinal use of cannabis that could lead to UK patients being prescribed drugs derived from the banned plant.
Mr Javid revealed the move in the House of Commons after a series of appeals by parents who want their children to access medications that can treat epilepsy and other illnesses.
The home secretary said he had authorised a licence yesterday for sixyear-old Alfie Dingley, after his mother said she had been waiting three months for Prime Minister Theresa May to fulfil a personal assurance he would be allowed to receive cannabis oil. Mr Javid told MPS the class B drug would stay banned for recreational use.
The review will be held in two parts with the first, led by chief medical officer Sally Davies, making recommendations on which cannabis-based medicines have medical and therapeutic benefits.
In the review’s second part, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will look at whether changes should be made to the classification of such products.
“If there view identifies significant medical benefits, then we do intend to reschedule,” Mr Javid told MPS.
“We have seen in recent months that there is a pressing need to allow those who might benefit from cannabis-based medicines to access them.”
His announcement came days after Mr Javid intervened to permit the use of cannabis oil to treat severely epileptic 12-year-old Billy Caldwell, who had been admitted to hospital with seizures after supplies his mother had brought from Canada were confiscated at Heathrow.
Alfie’s mother Hannah Deacon said she was “overwhelmed” by the news and hoped it would be easier to access cannabis medication in future.
Billy’s mum Charlotte said it was “amazing” news which she “applauded”.
It is somewhat unfortunate that the argument over the possible use of cannabis to treat certain medical conditions has been conflated with the case for legal recreational use.
The two are completely different and William Hague has, no doubt innocently, done health campaigners something of a disservice by discussing the two in the same breath.
The kinds of cannabis oils used to treat conditions such as epilepsy are completely different to those strains used to create a “high” during recreational use.
Lord Hague may well be right to claim that the war on cannabis has been “irreversibly lost” and the legalisation debate is one well worth having.
However, that is quite different to any discussion surrounding the use of the drug for medicinal purposes.
It would be perfectly possible to legalise cannabis purely for medical interventions, and there is a strong argument to suggest there is therapeutic value in its use.
UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted the government is failing to get the “law on this kind of thing right” and has pledged a review into the matter “as quickly as possible”.
That is a positive development.
However, it would be both unnecessary and unhelpful to carry out such a review into medicinal purposes at the same time as considering possible legalisation for recreational use — a debate likely to spark very different arguments.