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UK The Times: Medical cannabis use is on the rise — if you can afford to pay

Medical cannabis use is on the rise — if you can afford to pay
Elisabeth Perlman
6 - 8 minutes

Private medical cannabis clinics in the UK are experiencing a boom in demand as some patients call for the drug to be more readily available on the NHS.

Julie Gould, 64, from London, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), said cannabis had saved her life, but that the drug was “too expensive for the majority of UK citizens”.

She said: “I applied for medical cannabis because I’d used it before it was legal for my severe MS pain. It was extremely effective. Trigeminal and occipital neuralgia are excruciating and the usual medications prescribed (codeine/amitriptyline/gabapentin) don’t touch the pain.”

Getting medical cannabis on the NHS should not be so difficult, she said.

Gould also suffers with restless legs syndrome (RLS) and it was medical cannabis that got her through the “hellish” withdrawals when she changed her RLS medication.

“I’d reached the logical conclusion that my quality of life was so poor [before going on medical cannabis] that I seriously looked into Dignitas,” she said.

Medical cannabis was legalised in 2018, after a campaign led by the mothers of two children, Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, who had been diagnosed with rare forms of epilepsy in infancy. It can be prescribed on the NHS for severe epilepsy, nausea from chemotherapy or for muscle spasms (which must be classed as “moderate” to “severe”) caused by MS — and only if other treatments have not been effective.

Medical cannabis was legalised following the cases of Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, below

Medical cannabis was legalised following the cases of Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, below

Given that Gould does not get muscle spasms she did not qualify for NHS treatment.

Fortunately, she no longer has episodes of severe MS pain, because if she did, she estimates that she would be paying about £3.50 a day for medical cannabis oil. “I wouldn’t be able to afford it,” she said, adding that prices were only increasing.

In 2020 100ml of the cannabis oil she used cost about £150. Now that same oil is £350.

Gould’s 56-year-old sister, Jane, who also has MS, was unable to access medical cannabis on the NHS.

Protesters went to parliament to call for medical access to cannabis in 2017. The UK medical cannabis market is expected to be worth £300 million next year

Protesters went to parliament to call for medical access to cannabis in 2017. The UK medical cannabis market is expected to be worth £300 million next year

Jane has spent approximately £5,000 over the past four years on medical cannabis. That does not include consultation fees, which are about £60. Repeat consultations every three months are also £60.

She said: “Nerve pain drugs gabapentin and amitriptyline as well as anti-spasm drugs like baclofen and pregabalin have much more serious long-term side-effects than cannabis, but are so much easier to access.

“Cannabis allowed my sister to sleep for more than four hours a night for the first time in over a decade. She’s been able to stop taking baclofen and amitriptyline. She feels so much better.”

Gould also suffers with restless legs syndrome and says her quality of life was so poor she considered contacting Dignitas

Gould also suffers with restless legs syndrome and says her quality of life was so poor she considered contacting Dignitas

LUCY YOUNG FOR THE TIMES

She added that many doctors still viewed cannabis as a gateway drug and were worried about psychosis as a side-effect. She added: “This may be true of street cannabis, laced with other substances, but it’s not true of medical cannabis.”

The UK medical cannabis market is the second largest in Europe and is expected to be worth £300 million next year, according to the market researchers Prohibition Partners.

Private medical clinics in the UK have been inundated with inquiries. In the first half of this year, Curaleaf Clinic recorded a 42 per cent increase in the number of new patients compared with the same period last year.

Dr Simon Erridge, its research director, said that given chronic pain was on the rise and there were limited treatments for sufferers, “it’s only natural that we’re seeing an increase in people exploring other options, such as medical cannabis”.

Mamedica, another medical cannabis clinic, recorded a more than tenfold increase in patient numbers last year, from 250 to 2,750. It has treated more than 5,400 patients since the company was launched in 2022.

Jon Robson, the chief executive of Mamedica, said that the increase owed a lot to the fact that “the NHS only offers limited access to medical cannabis”.

He added: “Although Nice [the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] guidelines suggest that NHS doctors could prescribe it for certain conditions … in practice, such prescriptions are quite rare.”

Nice, which is responsible for deciding what drugs are available on the NHS, says more evidence of the drug’s benefits is needed. A spokesman said there was an “overall lack of clinical and cost-effectiveness evidence for these products. It’s also important to point out that even if Nice recommended widespread use of these products, it would not necessarily mean that they’d become routinely available on the NHS. This is because the majority of the products are unlicensed and so access will only be available from specialist doctors.”

There are, however, potential risks of medical cannabis products, particularly if the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content is high. THC is the principal psychoactive element of cannabis. According to the NHS, there’s evidence that regular cannabis use in some people can increase the risk of developing a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia. Depending on the type of medical cannabis you take, it’s also possible to develop side-effects such as decreased appetite, diarrhoea, feeling sick, and dizziness.

Most NHS patients are prescribed only licensed products. To date, three drugs have been licensed by the NHS.

Sarah Bardsley, a photographer and coffee shop owner in Sussex, started taking an unlicensed form of medical cannabis about a year and a half ago.

Sarah Bardsley says medical cannabis “gave me my life back” after years suffering with endometriosis pain

Sarah Bardsley says medical cannabis “gave me my life back” after years suffering with endometriosis pain

The cost works out at about £70 a month, plus a consultation with a specialist doctor every three months, which costs £50.

“I have bad endometriosis, which caused me to experience excruciating stomach and pelvic pain,” she said.

She tried ibuprofen, paracetamol, codeine and even had surgery but it was medical cannabis that “gave me my life back”.

Bardsley believes that it should be easier for NHS GPs to prescribe medical cannabis.

 
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