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UK to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis-based medicine Doctors allowed to prescribe cannabis-based medicine in UK
(34 minutes later)
Doctors will be able to prescribe cannabis products to patients from 1 November, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced. Doctors in England, Wales and Scotland will be able to prescribe cannabis-derived medicine in less than a month, the home secretary has announced.
The changes apply to England, Wales and Scotland, and follow several high-profile cases, including that of two young people with epilepsy, Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell, whose conditions appeared to be helped by cannabis oil. Sajid Javid previously announced cannabis-derived medicinal products were to be placed in schedule 2 of the 2001 Misuse of Drugs Regulations, allowing clinicians to prescribe them.
Javid said the regulations brought cannabis-based products for medicinal use into the existing medicines framework but were “not an end in themselves”. On Thursday, the home secretary confirmed the regulations would come into force on 1 November.
He said the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs would conduct a long-term review of cannabis, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence would provide advice for clinicians by October next year. The changes come after a series of high-profile cases involving children being denied access to cannabis oil to control epileptic seizures. The cases include those of Billy Caldwell, 12, and Alfie Dingley, six, who have forms of intractable epilepsy, also known as refractory epilepsy, that appear to be eased by the use of cannabis oil.
“The government will monitor the impact of the policy closely as the evidence base develops and review when the ACMD provides its final advice,” Javid said. In a written statement to parliament, Javid said: “I have been clear that my intention was always to ensure that patients have access to the most appropriate course of medical treatment.
“I stressed the importance of acting swiftly to ensure that where medically appropriate, these products could be available to be prescribed to patients.”
He added: “I have been consistently clear that I have no intention of legalising the recreational use of cannabis. To take account of the particular risk of misuse of cannabis by smoking and the operational impacts on enforcement agencies, the 2018 regulations continue to prohibit smoking of cannabis, including of cannabis-based products for medicinal use in humans.”
The regulations allow three access routes for the order, supply and use of cannabis-derived products by patients – a special medicinal product for use in accordance with a prescription or direction of a doctor, an investigational medicinal product without marketing authorisation for use in a clinical trial or a medicinal product with a marketing authorisation.
Home Office officials are still in discussions with the Department for Health in Northern Ireland over the changes.
Cannabis has been classed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning it is thought to have no therapeutic value and cannot be lawfully possessed or prescribed. It may be used for the purposes of research, but a Home Office licence is required.
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