A group of prominent industry organizations has launched a new initiative advocating for general practitioners (GPs) to have the ability to prescribe medical cannabis to their patients.
The Cannabis Industry Council (CIC), the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society (MCCS), Volteface, and Maple Tree Consultants are leading the campaign, urging for GPs to have the same prescribing rights as consultants.
The “Protect our Patients” campaign is initially seeking support from other organizations across the industry who share a common goal for change.
Professor Mike Barnes, founder of both MCCS and CIC, stated the following:
“The current model for medical cannabis where only consultants can prescribe is simply not working in the interests of the majority of patients.
“We are calling for a meaningful, yet uncontroversial change for GPs to be allowed to prescribe medical cannabis to their patients. This change can be made in a relatively straightforward manner, and we will be setting out details in due course.
“We urge the industry to unite around this important agenda to protect our patients.”
Hannah Deacon, Director of Maple Tree Consultants, remarked:
“Maple Tree welcomes this initiative. It is time that medical cannabis is more widely available to those that so badly need it and one way to do this is allow GPs to initiate prescriptions for their patients. This will also help to remove patients from the criminal market.
“There is still so much to do to support patients with access to this legal medicine and I hope to see the whole sector get behind this important initiative.”
Katya Kowalski, The Head of Operations at Volteface, added:
“Volteface is proud to support and stand alongside this initiative. It has been nearly five years since medical cannabis was legalised in the UK yet the number of legally prescribed patients remains low.
“Whilst there are a plethora of barriers to the UK’s medical cannabis system, one of the most pertinent blockers that could be solved through a simple policy change, is to allow GPs to initiate prescriptions.”
“Frustratingly, cannabis-based medicines continue to be seen as a ‘last resort’ medicine in the UK. In fact, cannabis should be viewed as a medicine that can treat a variety of general practice issues such as sleep, anxiety and pain.”
Since the UK government permitted medical cannabis in 2018, approximately 1,000 patients per year receive NHS prescriptions, while 20,000 private patients are treated annually.
Nonetheless, 1.8 million people in the UK turn to the illegal cannabis market for medical purposes, partly due to the lack of GP prescriptions.
