Several UK parents, whose children have a severe type of epilepsy resistant to conventional treatments, have resorted to buying cannabis oil online or smuggling it into the UK from the Netherlands, where it is legal, to avoid its UK costs or legal regulations. Since medicinal cannabis was legalized in the UK in 2018, full-spectrum medicines, which include the psychoactive chemical THC, have not yet been granted licenses. The NHS and private clinics can prescribe medicines that have not been licensed, but it has proven to be rare, with fewer than five NHS patients being prescribed full-spectrum cannabis oil in the past six years.
Jane, one of the parents interviewed in the report, had fought for two years for her daughter, Annie, to receive an NHS prescription for unlicensed, full-spectrum medicine. When she was turned down, Jane started illegally ordering 0.4 milligrams of the oil twice a day online where it cost £55 ($76) a bottle, significantly cheaper than a legal private prescription. Since consuming the oil, Jane says, Annie’s seizures have “dramatically reduced”. Several other parents also smuggled the oil from abroad and claimed it changed their children’s quality of life for the better.
Parent support charity MedCan counts at least 382 families purchasing this medicine illegally online, and believes that this number is only the tip of the iceberg. Robert Jappie, one of the UK’s leading legal experts in the medical cannabis sector, points out that although it is not likely that anyone will prosecute them for importing the drugs, smuggling them into the UK can count as international drug trafficking that has heavy prison sentences.
Licensing new medicines require lengthy clinical trials, which often focus on one or a couple of compounds. However, Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat MP and the current chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, attributed the slow progress to the government’s lack of action in investing in research to push through medicinal cannabis reform. The NHS said in a statement that licensed cannabis-based treatments were routinely funded by the NHS where there was clear evidence of their quality, safety, and efficacy.
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