Lobbying from MP’s and Doctors is growing with Matt Hancock, (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care) being called upon to relax restrictions on prescriptions of medical cannabis.
As reported in the Daily Express recently:
Medicinal cannabis: Doctors and MPs plead for drug to be free on NHS
Senior doctors and more than 100 MPs want GPs to be able to prescribe medicinal cannabis on the NHS – with medics arguing that failure to do so is “leading to preventable deaths”.
Professor David Nutt, a leading drug expert at Imperial College London, Professor Lawrence Phillips, an expert in decision science and drugs at the London School of Economics, and Professor Stephen Bazire, a consultant pharmacist, together with crossbench peer Baroness Molly Meacher, are joint signatories.
A group of more than 100 crossparty MPs, including Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, Dr Phillip Lee, Labour MP for Bracknell, and shadow health secretary Barbara Keeley, added their weight to the campaign, writing to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
They want him to “intervene urgently on behalf of vulnerable families… who should not be left to suffer without an NHS prescription [for medicinal cannabis].”
Their letter was supported by campaign group End Our Pain – patients and relatives who believe their conditions could be effectively treated with medicinal cannabis.
The groups argue the current system is not working. Under existing rules introduced last November, following a campaign by parents of children with severe epilepsy, specialists are allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis.
The Express says that since then there have been no NHS prescriptions for it – however at the recent Europa Cannabis conference in London, medical professionals and MP agreed that only 4 NHS prescriptions had been given to date – a lot needs to be done – please use our contact form to be kept up to date.