Cannabis: it’s medicine if you’re rich enough – a crime if you’re not |
In Britain, whether cannabis is treated as medicine or a crime may depend less on medical need than on the ability to pay. In 2018, the UK government changed drug policy, allowing specialist doctors to prescribe cannabis-based medicinal products.
The decision was presented as a move towards evidence-based healthcare, recognising cannabis may have therapeutic value for health conditions such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, spasticity in adults with multiple sclerosis and treatment-resistant epilepsy. Nearly seven years later, though, access remains highly restricted. According to NHS guidance, medical cannabis is tightly controlled and usually considered only when other treatments have failed.
In practice, NHS prescriptions remain rare, with most patients accessing cannabis privately at considerable cost. For many others, legal access is simply unavailable.
Cannabis is recognised as medicine, yet people using it therapeutically without a prescription can still face criminal sanctions. The problem is not simply legal inconsistency but structural inequality.
While medical cannabis is legal in principle, the route to obtaining a prescription is narrow. Clinical guidance remains cautious, many doctors are reluctant to prescribe it, and patients find it difficult to navigate the system.
Those unable to afford private treatment are often left with limited options: go without........