UK Medical Cannabis

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Cannabis prescriptions became legal in the UK in 2018. This is a place for those seeking advice and to share information, knowledge & news about legal medical cannabis obtained by a prescription as well as the clinics and pharmacies that provide it. This is also a community, where patients can come together and forge friendships with others who share similar experiences.

I've created this community as well as !ukmedicalcannabis as I'm new to the Fediverse, migrating from Reddit and unsure if the proper naming convention for a UK based medical cannabis community should be !ukmedicalcannabis@feddit.uk or !medicalcannabis@feddit.uk

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New to UK. Need advice on medical THC (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Twofacetony@lemmy.world to c/medicalcannabis

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Hello everyone (???),

I recently moved from Australia to UK, and in that process I had to speak to my doctors back in Australia for my medication to be documented for UK GP’s. The normal stuff like, Valium, codeine and strong anti-inflammatories were pretty easy to switch over, but the THC side is where I’m finding roadblocks and don’t know where to go, or even if I can.

I have been prescribed Spectrum Red THC oil, and thankfully I have enough of it to last another year or so, but there will be a time when I have to jump on the doctor bandwagon to get it refilled. Do GP’s prescribe it in the UK like I would in Australia, or do I have to go down a long path of finding the right doctors practice that will be able to prescribe THC oil?

Thankfully I have a great doctor who will electronically prescribe oil to be filled at a dispensary in Australia, who might be able to mail it to me, but I don’t quite like the prospect of paying £70 and hoping a bottle arrives… and then having to possibly deal with border control for importing something that might be illegal.

Does anyone know of a cannabis doctor in the UK that would prescribe that particular medication, or at least have any personal experience with any insight on how it works here?

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[–] rah 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In the UK, the NHS will not prescribe cannabis except for a very small number of rare conditions. Ordinarily you need to go to a private clinic to get a prescription.

Regarding the law, you need "lawful authority" to posess cannabis. Since cannabis was rescheduled in 2018, that lawful authority can be a prescription from a doctor. The only issue I can see is that an Australia doctor may not be considered a doctor without a UK license and hence your Australian prescription may not constitute lawful authority to posess cannabis.

This will be a general issue with all prescribed medicines though, it's not specific to cannabis. You might want to do some web searching to find out whether Australian prescriptions for controlled substances are valid in the UK. You could talk to an Australian consulate too.

The authorities here haven't caught up with the legality of cannabis medicines so it's entirely possible you'll face shit here just the same as UK patients. You might well find things being confiscated by ignorant Little Hitlers. However, I'd guess the Crown Prosecution Service are highly unlikely to try and prosecute someone with a prescription from an Australian doctor.

[–] Twofacetony@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Thank you for your thorough response… It’s a shame that the UK hasn’t had a better adoption of alternative medicines, but I realise that is the case and it is what it is. Thankfully for me, I’m a dual citizen, with a legal prescription in Australia, so I can always get the prescription filled over there, and bring it back into the UK on my Australian passport as long as it’s under what is considered three months supply. The below is a transcript I received from the Drug Import/Export Case Owner & Licensing Manager

—————— ——————

Thank you for your email.

You can bring up to 3 months supply of this medication (as it contains a controlled drug) if it is accompanied by a letter from the prescribing clinician stating the patient, medication prescribed, dosage, quantity carried and that it does not exceed 3 month’s worth of medication.

Kind regards

——————— ———————

Now, if my doctor says that my dosage is 1.5mL a day, that equates to 135mL that I’m allowed to bring into the UK with an accompanied doctors note. If a bottle of THC is 40mL, I can bring in 3 bottles. hypothetically, if my dosage is more like 0.1mL, then that’s about 1200 doses, or 3.2 years worth of daily medication.