Reclassifying cannabis based drugs has not made accessing them easier, MPs hear

Patients are struggling to access cannabis based medicinal products despite a law change last November allowing specialist doctors to prescribe them,1 MPs on the Commons Health and Social Care Committee have been told at an evidence gathering session for its inquiry into medicinal cannabis.

This even includes patients such as Alfie Dingley2—a child with intractable epilepsy whose case was instrumental in changing the law, who was granted access to a cannabis based medicinal product through special licensing arrangements.3 That licence was revoked after the law change, and Peter Carroll, director of the campaign group End of Pain, said he was “shocked and horrified” that the local trust refused to prescribe the product.