‘Life-saving’ cannabis oil for epileptic boy is seized at airport
A MOTHER’S supply of cannabis oil to treat her epileptic son, who suffers up to 100 fits a day, was confiscated at Heathrow Airport yesterday.
Charlotte Caldwell had flown to Canada and back with 12year-old Billy to get a six-month supply of the controversial oil which is illegal in the UK.
Miss Caldwell accused Home Office Minister nick Hurd of having ‘likely signed my son’s death warrant’ before heading to a London meeting with him yesterday.
She insisted: ‘it’s Billy’s anti-epileptic medication that nick Hurd has taken away – it’s not some sort of joint full of recreational cannabis.
‘i will just go back to Canada and get more and i will bring it back again because my son has a right to have his anti-epileptic medication in his country, in his own home.’
Miss Caldwell, from Castlederg in northern ireland, vowed: ‘Let me tell you something now – we will not stop, we are not going to stop, we are not going to give up. We have love, hope, faith for our kids and we are going to continue.’
She warned of the dangers of Billy missing his treatment for the first time in 19 months.
‘The reason they don’t do it (stop treatment immediately) is that it can cause really bad side-effects,’ she said. ‘They wean them down slowly. So what nick Hurd has just done is most likely signed my son’s death warrant.’
Miss Caldwell, 50, said after meeting Mr Hurd: ‘We had an honest and genuine conversation. i have asked him to give Billy back his medicines today. He said no. i’ve asked him to come up with a solution.’
She said she met Mr Hurd to plead to him ‘parent to parent’ to get the oil back. She was ‘absolutely devastated’ to have the supply taken away after declaring it to
‘Minister has signed his death warrant’
border officials – and claimed one welled up with tears while doing it.
‘They are parents themselves and they were very conflicted about removing the medication from me. in fact one of them had tears in their eyes when he was doing it. They did not want to do it.’
The Home Office said it is ‘sympathetic to the difficult and rare’ situation faced by the Caldwells, but defended seizing the oil.
A spokesman insisted: ‘Whilst we recognise that people with debilitating illnesses are looking to alleviate their symptoms, Border Force has a duty to stop banned substances from entering the UK. Ms Caldwell has therefore had cannabis oil seized this morning at Heathrow Airport upon landing from Canada.’
The UK is the world’s largest exporter of legal cannabis grown for medical markets – but its use is banned here. Billy started the treatment in 2016 in the US.
He became the first person in the UK to receive a prescription after his local GP, Brendan O’Hare, began issuing them.
The doctor was summoned to a meeting with Home Office officials recently and told to stop.