How a mother’s love for her very sick little boy has been hijacked by a pro-cannabis lobby that stands to make billions
Charlotte insists her epileptic son needs illegal cannabis oil. But behind her tears lie links to a web of slick lobbyists, drug giants and a tech tycoon who wants to legalise pot
Over recent days Billy Caldwell has, according to his mother Charlotte, been ‘a little slow on his feet’. As well he might have been.
The past few weeks have been extraordinarily stressful for the 12-year- old, who suffers from extreme epilepsy, and who was thrust into the spotlight by his mother, desperate to give him the controversial, but she says essential, medication he needs.
It’s also triggered a passionate and sometimes angry debate on the legalisation of cannabis.
Why? Because, from the moment Billy’s medicinal cannabis oil was confiscated at Heathrow Airport on June 11, with his mother pleading with customs officials to allow her to keep the medication prescribed to him in Canada, calls for the legalisation of the drug — for medicinal and recreational use — have soared to a deafening crescendo.
On grounds of humanity — a sobbing mother, a palpably ill child, a drug that cannot be sourced legally in the UK — it’s not difficult to see why.
Charlotte’s emotive fears that Billy would die without the cannabis oil seemed as if they would be borne out, when four days later she was pictured cradling him on the way to London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital as he suffered uncontrollable fits.
Few could fail to be moved as a tearful Charlotte, 50, spoke outside the hospital about her ‘beautiful, sweet, innocent boy’ who was suffering ‘lifethreatening’ seizures and didn’t deserve this ‘callous treatment’.
Within hours, the Home Office released some of the confiscated medicine, which contains two cannabis-derived substances, the legal cannabidiol (CBD) and banned tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound associated with the ‘high’ given by the drug. They gave doctors a 20day licence to administer one of the seven bottles of the drug Charlotte had brought from Canada.
Then, clearly feeling forced to act, Home Secretary Sajid Javid told the House of Commons it was ‘time to review the scheduling of cannabis’ for medicinal use.
The debate did not stop there. Within hours of that announcement, the former leader of the Conservative party, Lord Hague, went further still, calling for the Government to be ‘bold’ and to legalise cannabis for recreational use. SO IT was, in little more than a fortnight, the story of the suffering of a boy from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and his devoted mother seemed to have changed the country’s narrative on cannabis.
Next week, Billy’s story is expected to gather pace: The licence granted by the Home Office will expire on Friday — the very day the Legalisation of Cannabis (Medicinal Purposes) Bill goes before the House of Commons for its second reading.
As the pace quickens though, disturbing facts are beginning to emerge that suggest Charlotte and Billy’s story is being driven by those determined to force through the legalisation of cannabis for both recreational and medicinal use.
Indeed, we can reveal Charlotte’s links to a web of politicians, drugs manufacturers and pressure groups united by a common goal — to make cannabis more freely available. If successful, this would unlock the door to a multi-billion dollar industry.
For our investigation has unearthed that:
Billy’s mum Charlotte’s campaign is funded by Paul Birch, a multi-millionaire British tech tycoon. Mr Birch is the founder of UK think-tank volteface, which has called for the legalisation of medicinal and recreational cannabis in the UK.
Charlotte was supplied with cannabis oil by Tilray, a Canadian company with close links to volteface.
Tilray, which coincidentally last week announced plans for a $100m float on an American stock exchange, is owned by Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm whose other companies sell cannabis products for legal recreational use in America.
Privateer Holdings funded a trip to Seattle for Labour MP Jeff Smith and Tory MP Crispin Blunt, both of whom have been instrumental in driving the legalisation Bill through the Commons.
Charlotte set up one business to sell bottles of legal CBD cannabis oil — named Billy’s Bud after her son — and has registered a new company selling what she refers to as ‘medical products’ to raise money for him.
Furthermore, it has also emerged that Billy’s role in all this begins, not with those tearful scenes at Heathrow Airport customs — conveniently filmed by waiting news crews who had been alerted to the story by previous media coverage and regular updates posted by Charlotte on a dedicated Facebook page — but more than a month before.
Indeed, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, in the week Billy was released from hospital, Charlotte conceded her decision to bring the cannabis oil into this country was, in fact, part of a wellorchestrated strategy to change this country’s laws on cannabis.
‘It was a stand I was making,’ she says. ‘What I wanted to happen was they [the Custom Officers] would let us through with the medicine and that would have been the UK government recognising this cannabis has medicinal purposes.’
And Charlotte concedes: ‘There are loads of campaigners out there who are using medical cannabis as a Trojan Horse to get recreational cannabis legalised. But, honestly? I am not one of them.’
Clearly, Charlotte is a devoted mother who wants to do all in her power to stop her son falling victim to the seizures that have plagued him since babyhood. She insists she doesn’t so much as go to the hairdressers without her son and shares her bed with him every night.
She’s been single for ten years after her five-year relationship with Billy’s father fell apart, and lives in the country in ‘ a little cottage on two acres of land where Billy has his own hens’.
‘Our life is just me and him,’ she says of the boy, who cannot go to the toilet or feed himself and requires constant supervision lest he harms himself.
So, what are the facts behind this troubling story?
Charlotte’s trip to Canada in June came about because she was unable to legally source the type of cannabis oil she feels Billy needs here in the UK.
The course of treatment had initially been prescribed to him in the US by an American specialist to whom she had turned in 2016 in desperation, when she says Billy’s fits became uncontrollable. It is not known what conventional medicines she had tried before. And there is no definitive scientific proof that cannabis oil can help treat epilepsy. Charity epilepsy Action has warned cannabis oils containing THC can actually make seizures worse and cause other serious side- effects, such as psychosis. BILLy became the first person to receive an NHS prescription for medicinal cannabis oil in April 2017, with the support of his GP in County Tyrone. But the Home Office stepped in and warned his GP that he should stop prescribing the medication.
With her supplies of the oil running low, Charlotte decided to force a showdown with the authorities.
What has not come to light until now are the details of how her campaign was organised, funded and supported by
Volteface, with whom, the Mail can reveal, she has been linked since May this year — more than a month before those emotional airport scenes.
The key player in all of this is 52year-old Paul Birch, who has been a recreational cannabis smoker for 30 years and co-founded the social networking site Bebo with his brother Michael and Michael’s wife Xochi in 2005. It was sold to AOL in 2008 for $850 million.
Since then, among other ventures, Mr Birch has used his fortune to fund his interest in the legalisation of cannabis.
In 2015 Birch was inspired by the legalisation of the drug in a number of American states to launch the short-lived Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol party (CISTA) in Britain.
Ahead of the last General Election, the party claimed legalising the drug would raise up to £1.25 billion in tax revenue — and would ease the burden on the criminal justice system as fewer people would be convicted of drugs-related offences.
Mr Birch also founded Volteface, which promotes alternative drug policies. In 2016, the think-tank produced a report calling for the legalisation of cannabis in the UK, dismissing current policy on the drug as ‘an embarrassment’.
In response to enquiries by the Mail to Volteface, a spokesman for Mr Birch and the ‘Billy Caldwell anti- epileptic medication campaign’ confirmed that Birch had personally provided funding to Charlotte. When asked exactly what the funding covered and when exactly it was proffered, they declined to answer.
But what the Mail has discovered is that Charlotte had in fact been in close touch with Volteface since mid- May, following a meeting with MPs, including Tory Crispin Blunt who had been lobbied by Volteface.
On May 5 she posted on her Facebook account about meeting Blunt on a trip to Westminster. Then, on May 20, she flew with Billy to London for a round of media interviews. All media inquiries for this tour were fielded by a mobile number of none other than Volteface director Steve Moore, who had also been campaigning for Billy on Twitter since May 19.
‘Let the battle commence,’ she posted on her Facebook page at the time. ‘Just 19 days of medicinal cannabis left.’
THEN,on June 7, a day before Billy’s oil ran out, she flew with Volteface advisor and freelance journalist Ian Birrell to Canada where Billy was examined by an unnamed doctor and Tilray provided Charlotte with the oil.
Birrell, who has written for the Daily Mail and himself has an epileptic daughter, wrote in The Mail On Sunday about her determination to take the cannabis oil through customs the day before she boarded the plane. Inevitably, following those tearful scenes at customs, Billy’s story exploded onto the front pages.
This week, Mr Birch’s spokesman defended Volteface’s involvement. He said: ‘Paul Birch was angered and saddened when he heard Charlotte’s story. His engagement with her is an act of personal philanthropy, supporting victims — Billy and other families — of what have been well and truly exposed as cruel and outdated laws.’
‘ Charlotte is an ordinary mummy from Northern Ireland. What she achieved in the past ten days is astonishing. Those who are critical should take a long, hard look at themselves.
‘When she learnt her doctor could no longer prescribe meds to treat Billy’s seizures, she had to find an alternative. Her campaign has been personally funded by philanthropist Paul Birch, an internet entrepreneur, who has no investments in, or intentions to invest in, the legal cannabis industry. This is a marriage of Charlotte’s extraordinary courage and resourcefulness, and Paul’s ability to assemble a superb campaign team to support her.’
Which brings us on to the role of the Canadian company, Tilray.
Based in British Columbia, Tilray cultivates and sells medical cannabis both in Canada and to countries across the world where legislation allows. In Europe, this includes Portugal and Germany.
Tilray is a subsidiary of Seattlebased Privateer Holdings. Privateer pulls no punches about its aims on its website.
‘We represent a group of investors from around the world seeking to end cannabis prohibition and the social harms it causes,’ it states. ‘ Through a combination of acquisitions, investments and incubation, we are focused on building a portfolio of global brands that will lead, legitimize and define the future of cannabis.
‘We have three fundamental beliefs: Firstly that cannabis is a mainstream product consumed by mainstream people; the end of cannabis prohibition is inevitable; and, thirdly, brands will determine the future of the cannabis industry.’
Brendan Kennedy serves as CEO of Tilray and Executive Chairman of Privateer Holdings. He is also a Volteface adviser.
Inevitably, the company received helpful publicity thanks to Billy’s story.
ANDit was a busy time for Tilray. Two days after Billy was discharged from hospital on June 18, the company filed papers to float on the Nasdaq, an American stock exchange, in a move expected to raise $100 million. The filing came after Canada’s Senate passed a historic bill legalising the recreational use of marijuana.
‘ We are witnessing a global paradigm shift with regard to cannabis, and, as a result of this shift, the transformation of a multi-billion-dollar industry from a state of prohibition to a state of legalisation,’ the company said.
It was somewhat less forthcoming, however, when asked by the Daily Mail on what terms it had supplied the oil to Billy — citing patient confidentiality.
A spokesman said: ‘ Brendan Kennedy [Tilray CEO] volunteers his time on the advisory board of Volteface to help advise the organization about medical cannabis reform globally.
‘As one of the world’s largest producers of pharmaceutical grade medical cannabis, Tilray believes it has a public duty to share knowledge and advise groups like Volteface on effective, well-regulated medical programs that provide safe, high quality products to patients in need.
‘Tilray does not provide any funding to Volteface nor has Tilray paid for any patient to fly to Canada.’
But, what the Mail can now reveal is that, as early as 2016, Kennedy was meeting with former Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg and his former health spokesman Norman Lamb. Afterwards, the Lib-Dems became the first mainstream political party to call for legalisation.
Then, in April this year, Manchester Labour MP Jeff Smith and Reigate Tory MP Crispin Blunt were invited on an allexpenses-paid trip to Seattle, funded by Privateer Holdings. Both men, it should be noted, put their names to the Legislation of Cannabis Bill, which was put before the Commons for a first reading on 10 October, 2017, the second reading of which will be next Friday.
But it’s not just big business that is involved in the Billy Caldwell story. Charlotte herself
set up a company selling cannabis oil. She is sole director of Billy’s Bud Ltd which was set up in June 2017 and which sells CBD cannabis oil online. The oil is legal to sell in the UK and some believe it can help with anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia and pain.
According to Charlotte, the idea for the oil came from an American company that offered to make Billy the ‘poster boy’ for the marketing of Billy’s Bud. She accepted, she says, but on strict conditions.
‘I said, “Billy and me don’t need a lot of money.” I only did it on the agreement the money went into a trust for Billy.’
So has Charlotte received any money so far? That’s unclear. ‘Do you know what?’ she says. ‘I haven’t got none [of the billions floating around in the medicinal cannabis industry] and that’s the truth,’ she says.
Meanwhile, in April, Charlotte registered a new company, BB Medicines.
‘We’re looking at doing, maybe, some different medical products,’ she told the Mail. ‘We don’t know yet . . . All I want to have is a small company that can provide for Billy. It’s nothing fancy or big or corporate and any money made in the company is going into a trust fund for Billy. I just don’t want him going into some hospice or home where he might be abused. That was the reason it was done.’ Meanwhile, as Billy’s 20-day licence runs out and the second reading of the legalisation bill approaches, the Volteface team is doing everything it can to keep this tragic little boy in the news.
Five days ago, Birch took Billy to 10 Downing Street for a photo-opportunity. As it was, they were stopped at the gates to the street by a security guard.
Whether or not Prime Minister Theresa May invites them to pass beyond those gates in future only time — and hopefully the establishment of the full truth about this somewhat disturbing saga — will tell.