metro.co.uk/2018/11/15/american-cannabis-expert-warns-uk-government-relax-laws-or-be-left-behind-8138977/
A Californian medical campaigner has visited Parliament to warn Home Secretary Sajid Javid that Britain risks being left behind in the global cannabis market unless it relaxes laws around the drug.
Dr Frank D’Ambrosio met patients and MPs in Westminster last night before delivering a letter to the Home Office outlining the dangers of Britain’s failure to embrace the worldwide cannabis boom.
He believes big businesses are poised to claim a lion share of the British cannabis market and unless the government legalises cannabis, its chance to ‘democratise’ the market will be lost forever.
Dr D’Ambrosio told Metro.co.uk: ‘The UK has fallen short when it comes to cannabis.
‘Disinformation from Big Pharma and doctor ignorance is leaving patients vulnerable to the whims of hospital specialists given the option to only administer medical cannabis to patients as a “measure of last resort”.
‘The UK Government has legalised just a tiny part of the cannabis market and patients across the country will still not be able to benefit from the fantastic benefits of the plant.’
Since November 1, when the law in the UK changed, specialist NHS doctors can now prescribe certain cannabis-based medicine for patients with certain conditions – such as epilepsy – if other treatments have failed.
Dr D’Ambrosio gave evidence at the World Health Organisation earlier this week where he described how he stopped prescribing opioids to more than 10,000 patients in LA five years ago and began prescribing cannabis instead.
He said he was amazed at the results in the US – where opioid addiction has become an epidemic – and now campaigns across the world for better access to cannabis for everyone.
‘In California anyone can grow their own cannabis plants, imagine how brilliant that would be in Britain, people could grow their own medicine,’ he said.
‘It means the big companies cannot come in and monopolise the business, which is what is going to happen in Britain.’
In a letter to Sajid Javid, Dr D’Ambrosio raised the cases of children who have yet to be given the go-ahead to have cannabis medicine on the NHS.
He said: ‘I urge you now to adopt an interim licensing regime that lets patients to the same life enhancing drugs that are available in the USA, Holland and 35 other countries.’
Mr Javid has repeatedly stressed that the government has ‘no plans to decriminalise recreational cannabis’.