The National Health Service has granted fewer than five prescriptions for unlicensed cannabis medications like Bedrolite since legalization in 2018. This lack of public support forces families into the private market, where life-saving specialized oils can cost up to £4,000 every month. The fragility of this system is now critical following the bankruptcy of Bedrocan, the primary Dutch manufacturer producing this specialized oil. Meanwhile, private cannabis companies remain focused on lucrative lifestyle products rather than funding clinical trials for rare conditions.
Key points
Epilepsy patients are excluded from public care due to the failure of the NHS to prescrib…: Epilepsy patients are excluded from public care due to the failure of the NHS to prescribe unlicensed medicinal cannabis.
Commercial cannabis businesses prioritize high-margin wellness items like gummies and vap…: Commercial cannabis businesses prioritize high-margin wellness items like gummies and vape pens over costly clinical trials for acute illnesses.
Urgent government intervention is needed to protect specialized medicine access as foreig…: Urgent government intervention is needed to protect specialized medicine access as foreign suppliers face commercial failure.
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In 2022, a prodigiously talented young artist named Louis Petit was preparing to return to the UK, having been effectively exiled in the Netherlands as a teenager so he could access the medical cannabis he needed to control his epilepsy. Six years earlier, Louis, then 12, had been diagnosed with a rare form of the neurological disease when medical cannabis was still illegal in the UK.
But in Rotterdam, where it was legal, doctors helped him discover that a medical cannabis oil called Bedrolite, in combination with the right mix of anti-epileptic treatment, could slow and eventually stop his seizures. This was something his neurologists in the UK had previously considered impossible.
By the time Louis won a place at City and Guilds of London Art School in 2022, the UK government had legalised medicinal cannabis, pressed by parents needing the drug to treat their epileptic children – most notably Charlotte Caldwell and Hannah Deacon.
Louis assumed his troubles were behind him. “It seems naive now, but I think both me and my mum thought Britain would welcome me back,…
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