{"id":380041,"date":"2018-10-07T19:34:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-07T18:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/medical-cannabis-to-be-made-available-by-prescription-in-uk-from-next-month-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2018-10-07T19:34:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T18:34:17","slug":"medical-cannabis-to-be-made-available-by-prescription-in-uk-from-next-month-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/medical-cannabis-to-be-made-available-by-prescription-in-uk-from-next-month-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical cannabis to be made available by prescription in UK from next month \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        Medical cannabis will be made available to UK patients via prescription from next month, after a long battle with spotlight on children and other patients whose conditions were eased by the substance.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/429637-may-husband-capital-cannabis\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.06\/thumbnail\/5b214dcddda4c8f6508b4659.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Velar Grant\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Until now, the drug has been listed as a schedule one drug \u2013 the strictest schedule possible \u2013 under UK law, limiting medical cannabis to be allowed in only exceptional circumstances and requires a Home Office license to use legally.<\/p>\n<p>The new regime, which moves the drug to schedule two, will apply to cannabis oil that contains THC, the active ingredient that causes people to get <em>\u201chigh\u201d<\/em> when used in a recreational setting. Cannabis oil without THC is already legal in the UK and available in high street shops.<\/p>\n<p>The Home Office is expected to announce the <em>\u201crescheduling\u201d<\/em> of cannabis in parliament within the next two weeks, and patients will be able to obtain prescriptions for medical cannabis products within a matter of weeks, according to British media.<\/p>\n<h2>A long struggle<\/h2>\n<p>The decision to reschedule cannabis comes after a long battle between medical cannabis campaigners and a Conservative Party government reluctant to change laws regarding the drug, despite the UK producing 60 percent of the world\u2019s cannabis for pharmaceutical research.<\/p>\n<p>The fight came to a head earlier this year, after tireless campaigning by mothers of children suffering from rare forms of epilepsy, who found that medicinal cannabis proved the best course of treatment for their children\u2019s conditions over opiate-based medications.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"media__youtube-frame\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1W8kCPYcHkg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The cases of young epilepsy suffers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/432631-medicinal-cannabis-oil-rescheduling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alfie Dingly<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/430099-medicial-cannabis-dingley-caldwell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Billy Caldwell<\/a> gained particular attention in the media, highlighting the positive effects medical cannabis gave to their conditions.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/430178-health-cannabis-reform-hague\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018Policing cannabis like trying to win back the Empire\u2019: Ex-Tory boss calls time on govt drug policy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A stand-off between Billy\u2019s mother Charlotte and the Home Office took place in June, after drugs prescribed for him in Canada were confiscated at Heathrow Airport. After Billy\u2019s condition worsened and he was admitted to hospital, Home Secretary Sajid Javid backed down, releasing the drugs and Billy\u2019s condition drastically improved.<\/p>\n<p>Javid\u2019s decision to move ahead with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/434331-cannabis-drug-home-office\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">further<\/a> rescheduling comes following a review by England\u2019s chief medical officer, and will open up possible cannabis treatment to millions of British patients suffering from chronic pain, severe epilepsy or nausea as a result of chemotherapy.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/430912-legalize-medical-cannabis-weed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">READ MORE:\u00a0&#8216;Illegal to save children&#8217;: Parents attack govt. over criminalization of medical cannabis (VIDEO)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With an estimated 28 million sufferers of chronic pain in the UK, conditions that could be eased with medical cannabis range from conditions such as arthritis to multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n<p>The MS Society, who penned an open letter to the home secretary in June requesting that MS sufferers be considered under the department\u2019s review of cannabis, believe that as many as 10,000 suffers alone could benefit from the change in law.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/subscribe\/\" id=\"subscribe-focus\">Subscribe<\/a> to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won\u2019t tell you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/440607-uk-medical-cannabis-prescriptions\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Medical cannabis will be made available to UK patients via prescription from next month, after a long battle with spotlight on children and other patients whose conditions were eased by the substance. Read more Until now, the drug has been listed as a schedule one drug \u2013 the strictest schedule possible \u2013 under UK law, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":380042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-380041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}