MS patient prescribed medical cannabis in the UK

In the past couple of days, something amazing has happened. UK Veteran cannabis campaigner Lezley Gibson, MS Sufferer and activist who has been campaigning for cannabis for over 30 years, received her first delivery of legal medical cannabis to her home in the UK on 10th April 2019 - and yes, it was in its herbal form.

Lezley wrote an update on her facebook page:

Strangest of days,A courier just delivered my first LEGAL cannabis flowers.I visited The Beeches Cannabis Medical Centre last Friday where Dr McDowell ([email protected])agreed with my GP/MS Nurse and Neurologist that I ought to be prescribed cannabis medications. He supplied the prescription and arranged delivery of medications shown in the pictures. He also arranged paperwork from the Home Office for me to legally possess the medication/flowers.Cost? £250 consultation and £695 for 30g flowers and subsequent £150 per month visit to pain management centre for monitoring and repeat charges for bedrocan flowers.after my first crown court trial in 1989 where the judge said when told I use cannabis for my MS, "We cannot blame her for that!).This is the culmination of 30 years public campaigning and is a victory of sorts, although I am still awaiting charges for growing my own. This grow would have cost approx £200 to produce and last 3 month whereas the 30g at £700 will last less than 2 weeks.So cannabis in it's raw form has medicinal value and is legal, but only if you can afford it....I am right, they were wrong!

Comments have been mixed so far, with many activists and campaigners welcoming the news. But others criticised the developments, either due to the price or their perception of the quality of the cannabis delivered to Lezley on 10th April.

Our view is that any legal access to cannabis is a step in the right direction. Lezley can now travel with her medicine, and in addition, will (hopefully) no longer be discriminated against for being a medical cannabis patient.

Lezley's ability to access legal medical cannabis as an MS patient shows that we have made progress in the cannabis campaign, as before November 2018 this simply would not have been possible.

While we have seen several high profile medical cannabis cases involving children, these have been rare cases and very few patients are prescribed any form of cannabis medication via the NHS.

But privately, clinics have been set up to captialise on the influx of medical cannabis awareness and the growing number of would-be patients every day as more and more people realise how cannabis can help them or their condition.

The issue now is barriers to access - which can leave people severely out of pocket, or prescribed cannabis only in the last case, after other medicines fail to work - unless they can pay consultation fees and very high prescription costs.Lezley's "Legal" Bedrocan prescription costs £700 per ounce (28g)Many people cannot afford the private prescription and consultation charges, making medical cannabis access in the UK currently for the few who can afford it. And this is where we need to focus our campaigning energy to push the barriers and allow access to cannabis on the NHS for chronic pain.

This will take some time. In the meantime, we welcome every single case of legal access to cannabis which is breaking new ground in the UK. We feel positive that campaigning can focus on improving access to medical cannabis with some of the energy previously used to try and explain that it does indeed work for many people.

About Lezley Gibson

Lezley Gibson was instrumental in the formation of THC4MS and was also among the first successful medical necessity defences against cannabis charges.

On Lezley's trouble with the law concerning cannabis, CCGuide reports: In December 2006, Lezley was tried before a jury at Carlisle Crown Court, along with her husband Mark Gibson and Marcus Davies of THC4MS, for conspiracy to supply cannabis in the form of free bars of chocolate to sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis. The three had readily admitted to supplying over 35,000 bars over two years. The judge instructed the jury that they had no defence in law and that medical value was irrelevant; the written testimonials of over 1000 clients were not allowed before the jury. Possibly unaware of the rights of the jury to rule the law had been misapplied, and following the instructions of the judge, the guilty verdict was returned, a tragedy of justice which has led to suffering for many people.

On January 26, 2007, British Justice went completely berserk when Lezley was given a 9-month prison sentence along with husband Mark and Marcus Davies, the sentences suspended for two years.

Article from our website. Read more here: https://ismokemag.co.uk/ms-patient-prescribed-medical-cannabis-in-the-uk/