Following months of controversy and media outrages over suffering children denied medicine, the United Kingdom\u2019s Home Office announced that doctors will be able to prescribe cannabis-derived medications \u201cby the autumn.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the July 26\u00a0press release<\/a>, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: \u201cRecent cases involving sick children made it clear to me that our position on cannabis-related medicinal products was not satisfactory\u2026 Following advice from two sets of independent advisors, I have taken the decision to reschedule cannabis-derived medicinal products \u2013 meaning they will be available on prescription. This will help patients with an exceptional clinical need.\u201d<\/p>\n Javid immediately followed up by adding that the move is \u201cin no way a first step to the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use.\u201d Cannabis will remain a\u00a0class B drug under the UK\u2019s 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, carrying an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison just for personal possession. Those convicted of dealing can face 14 years behind bars.<\/p>\n The decision comes after\u00a012-year-old epilepsy-sufferer Billy Caldwell<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0granted an emergency license<\/a>\u00a0allowing him to be treated with cannabis medications by the\u00a0Northern Ireland Department of Health\u00a0early this month. He had been previously granted a temporary license by the Home Office that allowed him access to cannabis oil. His mother Charlotte Caldwell said it was the only effective way to control his seizures.<\/p>\n This was but the most celebrated of several such cases in the UK. The\u00a0similar plight<\/a>\u00a0faced by six-year-old Alfie Dingley has also won much media attention.<\/p>\n \u2028The Independent<\/a>\u00a0quoted Charlotte Caldwell saying the imminent rescheduling of cannabis medications was \u201cincredible\u201d news. \u201cFor the first time in months I\u2019m almost lost for words, other than \u2018Thank-you Sajid Javid.’\u201d<\/p>\n Javid issued the memo promising to legalize medical cannabis following an internal review process.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n He sent the question of cannabis legalization first to Dame Sally Davies, the UK\u2019s\u00a0Chief Medical Adviser<\/a>, who found that there is evidence that medicinal cannabis has therapeutic benefits. The issue then moved on to the\u00a0Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs<\/a>, which last week turned in its findings that doctors should be able to prescribe cannabis medications provided the products meet safety standards. The ACMD recommended that such medications be rescheduled under the\u00a0regulations that govern<\/a>\u00a0the Misuse of Drugs Act. Moving it from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2 would remove it from the list of Class B drugs under the law\u2019s\u00a0penalty structure<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the next step, the\u00a0Department of Health and Social Care\u00a0together with the\u00a0Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority<\/a>\u00a0(MHRA) is to come up with a definition of what constitutes a \u201ccannabis-derived medicinal product.\u201d Designated products will then\u00a0be rescheduled and made available to people with a doctor\u2019s prescription.<\/p>\n The MHRA has issued favorable rulings on cannabinoids before. In October 2016, it\u00a0issued a finding<\/a>\u00a0that CBD has legitimate medical applications.<\/p>\n However, as Britain\u2019s political website\u00a0The Conversation<\/a>\u00a0notes, if herbaceous cannabis is not reclassified, many medical users in the UK \u201cwill continue to be criminalised.\u201d Additionally, even for products that are rescheduled, \u201cthe costs and bureaucracy involved will likely deter many doctors from prescribing.\u201d<\/p>\n This recalls the\u00a0recent controversies<\/a>\u00a0in the United States over whether herbaceous cannabis should be permitted under state medical marijuana laws.<\/p>\n While the Home Office decision has generated much enthusiasm, it will be important to watch closely how the details actually unfold in the weeks to come.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think the United Kingdom should legalize smokable cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Medical Cannabis Products Will Finally Be Legal in the UK, But Which Ones?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Following months of controversy and media outrages over suffering children denied medicine, the United Kingdom\u2019s Home Office announced that doctors will be able to prescribe cannabis-derived medications \u201cby the autumn.\u201d In the July 26\u00a0press release, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: \u201cRecent cases involving sick children made it clear to meContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3394,4657,50,4658,5114,687,2478,139,4697,5115,81,5116,4655,2190,1572],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28165,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28164\/revisions\/28165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Medical Cannabis Products Will Finally Be Legal in the UK, But Which Ones?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"