SOME one million people in the UK are thought to regularly use cannabis to treat their medical condition.
The use of medicinal cannabis was legalised in the UK in 2018 but NHS prescribing is limited to tightly defined conditions, such as rare forms of epilepsy.
Patients can get private prescriptions for conditions such as pain and anxiety but this can be costly and access is limited to a handful of clinics. Many people therefore use illegal supplies and risk arrest.
Now a patient who uses cannabis to treat her chronic pain has set up a scheme, Cancard, whereby you pay £20 for a photo ID card that says you are using cannabis for medical purposes only, to help you avoid prosecution if questioned by a police officer.
But while it’s been reported that the Police Federation has endorsed the scheme, what we really need is robust evidence for the wider use of medicinal cannabis, driven by proper science and not law and order concerns.
I suspect there will be myriad benefits proven, but the ‘tail wagging the dog’ approach is not right.
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