Letter to DHSC concerning prescription copies being demanded.

[GrownHealth]

 

[GrownHealth]

This should set the scene for the future as the reply will be definitive and hopefully make things more black and white as patients are constantly getting advice that is overbearing and now patient numbers are rising to big numbers it's only going to get worse unless addressed properly
Great work from @Muiredach raising these points .

 

[node]

The response from the DHSC in 2022 is very telling... lets see if they might actually address the issue in 2025.
My advice, as one patient to another, remains - add legal cover to your home contents insurance and if "the man" in any shape or form harrasses you or worse then you can sue them. I suspect only when a few cases happen and money is lost then action will be taken.

 

[GrownHealth]

 

[Delta 9]

A step in the right direction cos if they done it with someone with epilepsy it could be fatal hence why i tend not to go out with my meds sadly

 

[Muiredach]

 

[Scriptoh]

Reckon it would be much simpler if your own clinic prescribed you a card like below when you register with them instead of all this copies of prescriptions etc which really don't mean much as they are photocopies/easily manipulated, police scan the card make sure your ID matches and bang your away...

 

[Muiredach]

Reckon it would be much simpler if your own clinic prescribed you a card like below;

That would be the worst outcome possible IMO, it's a good thing that random business cards like this aren't officially recognised nor accepted - as anyone and everyone would attempt to produce one. The only way cannabis cards will ever work (and could be understandable by the police), is if there's one centralised government card scheme. Trying to get police to accept Joe Blogg's clinics' random card will always be a recipe for disaster.

We've talked about this for years, and based on previous polls I have to point out a large proportion of patients are heavily against further government ID requirements.

End of the day, demanding any kind of extra identification from cannabis patients specifically is discriminatory - and even patients on methadone aren't required to carry special ID. We address this concern at length in the original letter.

 

[Scriptoh]

That would be the worst outcome possible IMO, it's a good thing that random business cards like this aren't officially recognised nor accepted - as anyone and everyone would attempt to produce one. The only way cannabis cards will ever work (and could be understandable by the police), is if there's one centralised government card scheme. Trying to get police to accept Joe Blogg's clinics' random card will always be a recipe for disaster.

The QR code would quickly eliminate fakes and speed up the whole process dramatically...

 

[Scriptoh]

And if government issued the card itself would be hologrammed etc

 

[Muiredach]

The QR code would quickly eliminate fakes and speed up the whole process dramatically...

It's just as bad as random clinic cards, with police expected to accept random ID pages from clinics with zero consistency or uniformity. Again, very easily fakeable.

And if government issued the card itself will be hologrammed etc

Again, the issue here is that in-order not to be discriminatory the government would then have to issue specific cards for all similarly scheduled/controlled drugs.

 

[GreenRed]

A QR code is just that, regular data in that specific block format. Unless it actually links to some sort of centralised, unique ID number (likely not on client side), and unless it keeps changing based e.g. on time passed (not on a card obviously), it can be abused fairly easily. Your own QR code could end up online and being abused.

 

[Scriptoh]

I'm picturing the QR code being linked to your government ID so that if the QR scanned doesn't match the person's physical ID provided at the time then there would be an issue

 

[Scriptoh]

So in essence yes anyone could jump around with your card/qr but if checked then it would be quickly apparent they're not supposed to be in possession of prescription cannabis... very similar to the way photographic ID works for alcohol, if it turns out your not who the ID says you are or underage etc then its confiscated simple as that

 

[Scriptoh]

I might be rabbling here feel free to burst my bubble

 

[GreenRed]

These don't really work for various privacy reasons. In that case any ID number ever leaks (and they do all the time) they can be used to be pointed at by questionable plastic cards. Or just someone using their own ID, printing their own card... The police doesn't and shouldn't have access to your medical records. So you have a questionable QR simply pointing at your passport - there is still no evidence you are a legal patient. Unless you present the previously available prescription / doctors note which brings us back to ground zero.

And the previous thought still applies - do we really want to carry more ID than a methadone or benzo or xanax patient?

 

[Scriptoh]

These don't really work for various privacy reasons. In that case any ID number ever leaks (and they do all the time) they can be used to be pointed at by questionable plastic cards. Or just someone using their own ID, printing their own card... The police doesn't and shouldn't have access to your medical records. So you have a questionable QR simply pointing at your passport - there is still no evidence you are a legal patient. Unless you present the previously available prescription / doctors note which brings us back to ground zero.

And the previous thought still applies - do we really want to carry more ID than a methadone or benzo or xanax patient?

I hate comparing cannabis patients to the likes of prescription heroin, cocaine, methadone etc but I know exactly where your coming from... I don't really know what it will take for the whole cannabis stigma to end to be honest

 

[Scriptoh]

In the place I volunteer at I made it quite clear I'm a cannabis patient and the talk quickly went down the route of "well you can also get prescription heroin, cocaine etc so that doesn't really make it right" and at the time I remember just being kinda speechless as I've never compared cannabis to class A's and always seen it as a medicine so I argued the bit and thought they were wrong... And after a bit of research they were right you can actually get heroin and cocaine on private prescription which left me totally baffled... I dont know whats right and wrong anymore all I know is cannabis works for me and thats it in a nutshell...

 

[Rimmerworld]

That would be the worst outcome possible IMO, it's a good thing that random business cards like this aren't officially recognised nor accepted - as anyone and everyone would attempt to produce one. The only way cannabis cards will ever work (and could be understandable by the police), is if there's one centralised government card scheme. Trying to get police to accept Joe Blogg's clinics' random card will always be a recipe for disaster.

We've talked about this for years, and based on previous polls I have to point out a large proportion of patients are heavily against further government ID requirements.

End of the day, demanding any kind of extra identification from cannabis patients specifically is discriminatory - and even patients on methadone aren't required to carry special ID. We address this concern at length in the original letter.

I have no photo id and there are folks who dont want a photo id. The GOV are looking at digital id again. I think that if they rolled out a national ID card like the driving license why can it not hold a link to data?

Why could a police officer not scan the id and on there it would say legal cannabis prescription holder. The ID would also hold vital medical info such as blood type any known conditions or legal requests. Just bar the police from being able to see the medical info the NHS non medical info. Why can the same card not hold if you have a valid drivers license?


Why not just have an all-in-one British ID system? I am very liberal in my views and anti big govermemt but i think this is going to happen eventually not related to big brother as such but merely a sensible way to access mass data when needed and to verify legal issues such as legal status on are you a criminal on the run? Are you here illegally? Are you illegally trying to claim to have a prescription? Are you illegally driving? One card could be used to answer the question. Its going to save police vital man hours as well.

 

[Muiredach]

Why could a police officer not scan the id and on there it would say legal cannabis prescription holder. The ID would also hold vital medical info such as blood type any known conditions or legal requests. Just bar the police from being able to see the medical info the NHS non medical info. Why can the same card not hold if you have a valid drivers license?

Speaking personally, I most definitely would not under any circumstance want my status as a medical cannabis patient on my driving license (prejudice), and also personally wouldn't want that on government record whatsoever - my medical information is none of their business.

Remember when 40,000,000+ voters personal details were leaked?

Online security lapses led to data of 40m UK voters being hacked, says ICO

Watchdog reprimands Electoral Commission for not being up to date with security updates before hack in August 2021

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