What Is Medical Cannabis And What Is It Prescribed To Treat?

Some eight years after the rules on medical cannabis were relaxed and it could be prescribed by specialists, it can still be complex without working with the right pharmacists and specialist doctors to understand whether it is an option for you.

In some cases, medical cannabis can be a life-changing prescription that helps to effectively manage a chronic condition that other prescription medicines simply cannot.

The cases of Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, both of whom suffer from particularly rare forms of severe epilepsy resistant to other treatments, managed to get an overly rigid law changed to allow for the prescription of medical cannabis when it is needed most.

What is medical cannabis? What is used to treat? And what are the criteria for getting a prescription? 

What Is Medical Cannabis?

Medical cannabis is a somewhat broad term used to describe several prescription medications which use cannabis as an active ingredient, and can refer to a range of cannabis oils, tablets containing cannabis or synthetic derivatives, or medical sprays.

Cannabis typically consists of two main active ingredients:

• Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive element that can make people feel high.

• Cannabidiol (CBD), the relaxing, painkilling element that has been prescribed for pain management and to help with convulsions.

Prescription formulations vary significantly in terms of how much THC or CBD are included, and can have significantly different effects as a result.

Neither should be confused with the types of CBD oil or gummies available as food supplements, as they often only have trace amounts of CBD to be legally sold.

Why Is It Hard To Get Medical Cannabis? 

Drug control laws typically classify Cannabis as a Class B drug, the second highest classification for illegal drugs in the UK, the same classification that amphetamines, ketamine and codeine have without a prescription.

Because it is illegal to possess, there has been a stigma attached to medical cannabis products for decades, and whilst their perception has changed, the law is slow to respond.

Which Conditions Are Medical Cannabis Used To Treat On The NHS?

Medical cannabis is highly controlled on the NHS, and is typically only available in a tiny number of cases for which there is no alternative treatment pathway.

These include:

• Chemotherapy-induced nausea.

• Multiple sclerosis.

• Rare, severe forms of treatment-resistant epilepsy, such as Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

It has, in some cases, also been prescribed as part of a clinical trial for chronic pain, but this has not progressed to a full recommendation under the NHS.

Are There Any Conditions For Which Medical Cannabis Is Prescribed Privately?

There is a much higher scope for private prescriptions to offer medical cannabis in cases where other treatments have proven unhelpful or have side effects that are impossible to manage.

The typical criteria for a private prescription are that you must at least:

• Have a medical condition diagnosed by a licensed professional that qualifies as being potentially treatable using cannabis.

• Have tried two other treatments that were ineffective or had side effects that severely affected your quality of life.

• Be a resident of the UK.

Exactly which conditions qualify varies, but our clinicians can determine which product and strength is right for you. 

Conditions that could qualify for medical cannabis include:

• Chronic pain.

• Anxiety and depression, in cases where cannabis will help.

• Insomnia.

• Other cancer-related symptoms.

• Parkinson’s disease.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Irritable bowel syndrome and similar conditions, such as Crohn’s disease.

• Symptoms of the menopause.

• Tourette’s syndrome.