Home delivery cannabis card protects medicinal users’ rights
THE UK’S first direct-to-your-door medical cannabis clinic has opened with patients being given a card to prove they are using the drug legally.
The Releaf e-clinic enables patients to see a registered doctor online who can prescribe medical cannabis from a UK pharmacy sent directly to their home.
The clinic also provides a Home Office backed photo ID card so patients can prove to police or law enforcement officers that they are using the drug for legal, medicinal reasons.
The card, the first of its kind in the UK, provides access to a patient’s prescription detailing what is prescribed, dosage, the condition, the company that provided the prescription and the doctor who issued it.
At the moment only senior doctors or those on a specialist register can prescribe cannabis and there are only a small number of NHS patients that are eligible for it.
In 2018 government drug watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence decided the cost of the drug outweighed its potential benefits for many patients. It recommended the NHS funded cannabis treatment only for children and adults with rare, severe forms of epilepsy, adults with vomiting or nausea caused by chemotherapy and people with stiffness and spasms due to multiple sclerosis.
Private doctors can prescribe medical
cannabis for a much wider range of medical needs including anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, cancer, Crohn’s disease, HIV and Aids, and long term pain.
Cannabis is a Class B drug in the UK and users without a medical prescription could face up to five years in prison.
Dr Stephen D’souza, clinical director of Releaf, said: “This card will ultimately provide those who really need medical cannabis the confidence and freedom to
take their prescribed medication when they feel the need to, free of stigma.”
It is estimated there are around 100,000 active medical cannabis users and this is predicted to rise to 334,000 by 2024.
Greg de Hoet, a 35-year-old medicinal cannabis patient who has Crohn’s disease, said: “This will really help to reduce the stigma and hopefully will empower others whose quality of life could be really improved by taking medical cannabis to speak to their doctor about it.”