Experts say epileptic boy, 15, should keep taking cannabis

BRITAIN’S top child epilepsy experts have recommended that a severely ill boy continues to take cannabis medication to manage his seizures, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind.

The recommendation by a panel of experts could bring about the first NHS prescription of full-spectrum cannabis oil for an epileptic child since it was legalised in 2018.

Billy Caldwell, 15, suffers from refractory epilepsy and was at the centre of a high-profile campaign to legalise cannabis oil, which has reduced his seizures. The law was changed in November 2018, but families of epileptic children have since been unable to secure any prescriptions on the NHS.

Many doctors believe the cannabis oil has little proven effectiveness, and have asked for prescriptions to be delayed until the outcome of a full clinical trial, which could take years. Families have instead bought the drug from private clinics at a cost of thousands of pounds.

A new panel of paediatric neurologists, designed to give doctors advice and confidence to prescribe cannabis on the NHS, has recommended that Billy’s medication continue but cannot force doctors to prescribe it.

The panel includes Finbar O’Callaghan, Professor of Paediatric Neuroscience at UCL, and Prof Helen Cross, Chair of Childhood Epilepsy at Great Ormond Street.

It would not be “wise to change Billy’s medication regime during this period where his seizure frequency appears to be relatively low”, they wrote, but said “there is an absence of objective scientific evidence that [cannabis products] containing THC are effective and safe”.

Billy’s mother, Charlotte Caldwell, says the Health Secretary must now intervene to encourage doctors in Belfast to issue an NHS prescription to her son.

A spokesman for the UK Government’s Department of Health referred the matter to the devolved department in Stormont.