The Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) has issued what they call 'short-term advice' for the UK parliament regarding the legalization of medical cannabis, as reported by the Independent July 19th. The advice is on whether or not medical marijuana should be legal in the UK.
The ACMD has now formally acknowledged that cannabis has medicinal benefits and believes physicians should be able to prescribe it to their patients.
ACMD Pro-Cannabis
The committee also advised that cannabis should be rescheduled under the misuse of drug legislation. The chair of ACMD, Dr. Owen Bowden-Jones, said in a statement:
"The ACMD advises that clinicians in the UK should have the option to prescribe Cannabis-derived medicinal products that meet the requirements for medicinal standards to patients with certain medical conditions."
The committee chair also said that the standards for medical cannabis therapies should be established by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority. Bowden-Jones states that the cannabis products that meet the standards set by these authoritative bodies should be given medicinal status.
In its recommendation, the ACMD said that government officials should act on the standards for cannabis in a "timely manner." Many countries in Europe and around the world have already begun using cannabis for medicinal purposes.
The ACMD feels that after its approval, doctors within the country would be able to write prescriptions for medicinal cannabis within weeks. After the initial launch, the government could then compose a more detailed study to determine more in-depth classifications for cannabis within their healthcare system.
The advice from ACMD is the second stage of a review called for by Home Secretary Sajid Javid. Javid had ACMD look into the case of a 12-year-old boy, Billy Caldwell, who suffers from severe epilepsy.
The boy has been using a special prescription of cannabis to reduce his seizures, but it was eventually denied. Billy's parents took him to Canada to obtain the cannabis, but the drug was confiscated at the London airport upon arrival. Just hours after, Billy was hospitalized with multiple seizures that became life-threatening.
The government then granted him a temporary license to continue to use the drug. It remains unknown how quickly the government could approve the use of medicinal marijuana.
Do you agree that medical marijuana should be legal in the UK? Let us know in the comments below.
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Featured Image: CannaSOS
