Bring Billy Home. The NHS Has Denied Him His Medicine Again. He Is Back In Canada.
It’s probably the most shocking outcome of the new regulations on cannabis that the boy whose story created the change is in exile again.
Billy Caldwell, loved and adored by the whole nation, is back in Canada with his mum Charlotte because there is not a specialist doctor in the UK who will prescribe the medicine he needs.
He has written a heartbreaking letter to Santa, saying he doesn’t want any toys this year “My Xmas wish is to go home with my medicine”.
I doubt whether there has ever been a time when the British people’s opinion of doctors is sinking so fast. Previously held in absolute reverence, more and more are realising that doctors are only human and some of their human characteristics are, frankly, disappointing. I’ll go further, some are disgusting.
Dr Chad Taylor of Jersey General Hospital
Doctors no longer sign the Hippocratic Oath but they are expected to abide by professional standards. You’d expect ethics or morals to be at the top but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Many are uninformed, frightened, ignorant or ideologically opposed to the use of cannabis as medicine.
In some cases, such as Dr Chad Taylor, they prefer their duty to their professional body than their duty to their patients. Dr Taylor says he has “no intention of bending to this pressure” and insists that his “only obligation as a medical practitioner is I’m duty-bound to follow my professional guidance”.
Dr Tom Smith of Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital
Another, Dr Tom Smith, falsely claimed in writing that he wasn’t “allowed” to prescribe for chronic pain, despite his patient having previously found cannabis effective when prescribed in Holland. Strong opioids don’t work for his patient but all Dr Smith could say was that the epidemic in opioid addiction could soon be an epidemic in cannabis addiction.
The level of ignorance, wild misinformation and bigotry amongst these so-called professionals is astonishing.
Returning to Billy’s story, CLEAR has been able to offer advice and guidance to Charlotte Caldwell which we believe provides a method by which Billy may legally return home with his medicine in time for Christmas. That’s the Christmas gift we all want – but not just for Billy. We want British doctors to open their eyes and their ears and start learning what doctors all over the USA, Canada and the rest of Europe already know, cannabis is a very safe and effective medicine. Instead of being afraid of it they need to start putting their patients first.
If The UK Government Refuses To Obey Parliament There Is No Longer Any Rule Of Law. Do As You Will.
The corruption and arrogance of Theresa May, her ministers, her government and the Conservative Party cannot be more clearly demonstrated than in their refusal to comply with the Parliamentary resolution to publish the legal advice on Brexit.
Parliament is supreme. It is also the highest court in the land, higher even than the Supreme Court. Its will is the law.
And if the deeply corrupt Theresa May pursues this path, the rule of law no longer applies in the UK. In which case, do as you will. I urge you however to continue to comply with common law and natural justice. Do nothing that harms or infringes the rights of anyone else.
The most obvious example is grow your own cannabis. If Theresa May doesn’t want to obey Parliament, there’s no reason why you should either.
Total Defeat and Humilation of Britain By the EU, Plotted By A Treasonous PM and Gang of Remainers
The British electorate has been betrayed by a devious conspiracy of the political establishment. What we voted for has been denied and Theresa May has subverted what was already a poor excuse for a democracy. Beyond doubt she is a traitor, as with propaganda that we have paid for, fake negotiations and an incompetent opposition she has given away everything that Britain stood for.
This is the time to overthrow the government. A century and more ago this would have been by violent revolution but in our pampered, all-too-comfortable world, our corrupt politicians know that will not happen and in the surveillance state that is modern Britain, the authoritarians that rule over us would never let it.
On the wall of my office, over my left shoulder, is that wonderful war time poster of RAF airmen and Churchill’s famous quote “Never was so much owed by so many to to so few.” Truly, Theresa May and her government have thrown that all away. We are disgraced and shamed, our leading role in history reversed by small-minded, self-serving bureaucracts.
Our only hope now is that Parliament will overturn this shambles and that we will exit with no deal. I accept that this will be chaotic and may cause all of us great problems but the alternative, to continue with Mrs May’s scheme would be disastrous. She must be removed from office and although it’s an impossible fantasy, she should go directly to jail.
CLEAR Announces New Policy On Home Cultivation Of Cannabis
In the past, CLEAR has refused to carry advertising or information from seed banks. The view we have taken is that although seeds are perfectly legal until germinated, promoting them is precious close to incitement to break the law and the position that we have maintained is to promote reform of the law.
Our position on this has changed.
Typical small grow tent 60cm x 60cm
Cannabis for medical use is no longer a matter for the criminal law. However, the absurd NHS guidelines are preventing doctors from prescribing freely. The entire purpose of the reforms is being subverted by ignorance. The doctors responsible for the guidance are preferring their own cowardice, reluctance to learn and the comfort of established prejudice rather than patients’ best interests.
People who need cannabis as medicine, unless they are fortunate enough to have one of the very few well informed doctors, have only two choices – go private, where doctors will typically make more independent decisions, or continue to source their medicine from the criminal market.
In these circumstances the ethical and economic choice is to grow your own.
With modern equipment, for an investment of just £200 – £300, one or two autoflowering plants can be grown in a purpose-designed tent with a modest power lamp, perhaps 250 watts, and odour filtration. It takes only a little practice to produce a reliable harvest of 100 – 150 grams of high quality bud every three months, sufficient for most personal needs.
Although technically this remains a criminal offence, provided you are discreet and respectful of others, there is very little chance of detection and there is hardly any enforcement going on anyway. The police don’t have the time and resources to deal with violent crime and burglaries, let alone someone growing for peronsal use only. If you have a medical condition for which there is evidence cannabis can help, the chances of being prosecuted for one or two plants are very small.
NICE Rejects Professor Mike Barnes’ Expertise in Cannabis as Medicine for a Second Time
Professor Mike Barnes is without doubt the UK clinician with the most expertise in the use of cannabis as medicine. He should have been first choice as a member of the NICE committee charged with developing cannabis prescribing guidelines and, as reported here, its rejection of his application was greeted with astonishment. However, NICE relented and invited Professor Barnes to an interview. Now they have rejected him again.
Mike was responsible for obtaining the first medicinal cannabis licences for Sophia Gibson and Alfie Dingley and he has been involved in countless behind-the-scenes efforts to assist others. He joined the advisory board of CLEAR in July 2016, is an ambassador for the End Our Pain campaign and has since contributed his expertise to several other organisations including UPA. He is also founder and director of education at the Academy of Medical Cannabis and founder of the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society.
What concerned NICE in the first place was that in February 2018, Professor Barnes was appointed Chief Medical Officer of SOL Global Investments (known as Scythian Biosciences until June 2018). NICE was concerned this could be a conflict of interest. In fact, SOL is an international cannabis company with a focus on legal U.S. states. It has no investments or plans for the UK. When Mike told NICE this he was invited for an interview. The second letter of rejection reads:
“It was clear that you have relevant experience and expertise in this area however the interview panel remained concerned about possible conflicts of interest around your links to commercial organisations and your campaign work in the area which means that you have a publicly stated position on the topic.”
Few will regard that as a credible or logical reason for not having Mike on the committee. It’s actually absurd and really makes one wonder who makes these decisions and what planet they are on. If there were even a few alternative candidates to consider then it might make some sense but there don’t appear to be any alternatives to Mike Barnes. If there is anyone else in the UK with his clinical qualifications, knowledge, experience and expertise, no one at CLEAR has heard of them. It’s foolish and irresponsible to reject the only real source of knowledge that will command respect from other clinicians and for such very flimsy and poorly thought through reasons.
How many other clinicians on other NICE committees have commercial relationships with pharmaceutical companies or other medical organisations? How many have also expressed their professional or personal opinions on matters of medical policy and practice? Have they been disqualified for the cardinal sin of holding an opinion? Does NICE want people on this committee who are insufficiently informed or so shy that they do not express opinions?
Could this happen anywhere but in Britain? However patriotic and loyal one is to our country, this sort of crass stupidity and hypocrisy seems to be a special gift of the UK civil service.
NICE has Form for this Sort of Self-Defeating Bureaucracy
Its ‘Do Not Do Recommendation’ on Sativex is directly relevant and is based on on a flawed assessment of cost effectiveness which itself is founded on ignorance of the way cannabis works and a determination not to give proper weight to MS patient reports of the benefit they gain from Sativex. None of this is to overlook the unethical and profiteering price which GW Pharmaceuticals wants to charge for the medicine. Pharmacologically identical products are available from US and Canadian medical cannabis dispensaries for about one-tenth the price of Sativex.
NICE has also failed dismally on the Freestyle Libre glucose monitoring system for diabetics. This revolutionary new system not only makes life much easier for thousands of people, doing away with the need for endless finger pricking, it also dramatically improves blood sugar control promising huge reductions in the long term cost of diabetes to the NHS. It’s been available since 2014 and thankfully will now be prescribed on the NHS from April 2019 but for five years NICE has dithered, waffled and procrastinated on it, exactly as it is now doing with cannabis. Until now, just as with cannabis, it has claimed insufficient evidence but the real problem is NICE has a blinkered view and fails to look widely enough for the evidence it requires.
In a remarkable parallel with the way it is handling cannabis, NICE claimed there was no evidence that the Freestyle Libre led to better blood sugar control in type 1 diabetics, But the reason it claimed this was that there was no study supporting it that met NICE’s criteria and by impeding uptake of the device it was making such a study virtually impossible. NICE totally failed to give any weight to the many case reports of really dramatic benefits – exactly as it is doing with cannabis.
So, while our prime minister and the Home Office drugs minister have a direct financial interest in the UK’s only commercial producer of medicinal cannabis, yet direct and control drugs policy, when it comes to caring for patients, the only British clinician with relevant expertise is disqualified by a connection with an overseas cannabis company and for expressing an opinion than cannabis could help many people.
As a footnote, I should declare that I also volunteered to give my time to the NICE committee as a lay member and I too was rejected. It’s not for me to question its judgement unless I have good reason to but given its track record with Mike Barnes, I do have legitmate concerns. I first gave expert evidence to Parliament on the subject in 1983 and again in 2012 and 2016. Since 2011 I have worked intensively with hundreds of people who use cannabis as medicine and I lead the group that represents more such people than all other UK groups combined. I am also the author of the study Medicinal Cannabis: The Evidence, which has been translated into three languages and has been cited many times throughout the world. I know of no one in the UK with more relevant experience than me.
Cannabis Professionals. The Trade Association for the UK’s Cannabis, CBD and Hemp Businesses
Cannabis Professionals (CannaPro) is the trade association for the UK’s cannabis, CBD and hemp businesses.
CannaPro will represent this fast-growing sector to the authorities, standing up to the Home Office, MHRA, FSA and Trading Standards, advocating for members’ interests, not acting as a government enforcer but as our members’ champion and to promote the development of the legal cannabis sector.
CannaPro will offer guidance and support to all businesses, helping them to navigate through law and regulations on drugs, medicines, food and cosmetics.
CannaPro will also launch a social media campaign, aiming to inform and educate the public about the benefits of CBD and the pitfalls. The market is full of scammers, fake claims and snake oil salesmen. Because of the historic stigma and fear around cannabis, government authorities are doing nothing, many people are misinformed and misunderstand. CannaPro will explain the facts clearly and direct consumers to certified businesses which they can rely on.
Membership of CannaPro is without charge. All guidance will be published openly for everyone to benefit from. Free-of-charge support and answers to individual questions will be available online.
Businesses wishing to be certified by CannaPro will be reviewed for their products, trading standards, marketing and conduct. Certified companies will be entitled to display the CannaPro badge as a mark of quality, ethics and reliability.
Backed by CLEAR, the UK’s longest-established cannabis group with a network exceeding all other UK drugs policy groups combined, CannaPro members will benefit from CLEAR’s wide reach and influence with UK consumers.
Website: https://cannapro-uk.org
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cannapro/
What Is The Matter With Doctors About The Use Of Cannabis As Medicine?
In the UK, most doctors, and the medical profession as a whole, are ignorant and bigoted about cannabis.
Their ignorance is not entirely their own fault. For 50-odd years, since cannabis tincture was last available from UK pharmacies, they have been subject to the same relentless tide of propaganda from the Home Office, successive governments, the tabloid press and rabble-rousing politicians as the rest of society. Many still regard cannabis as a dangerous drug consumed by degenerates that almost inevitably leads to mental illness. The idea that it could be a safe and effective medicine which offers real benefits in a wide range of conditions is regarded as laughable.
However, there is no excuse for such laziness amongst a profession that regards itself as scientific. And this is the charge – indolence, carelessness and laziness – that needs to be laid at those doctors at NHS England, the Royal College of Physicians and the British Paediatric Neurologists Association, that are responsible for the disgraceful ‘guidelines’ published two weeks ago.
Throughout Europe, Israel, Canada and the USA there are thousands of doctors who have made the effort to learn about cannabinoid medicine. They have had to make extraordinary effort to do because even the most basic science is still rarely taught. The endocannabinoid system is on the syllabus of very few medical schools, anywhere in the world, despite the fact we now know that it is the largest neurotransmitter network in the body and affects almost every aspect of our health and all medical conditions. This is a dreadful indictment of the medical establishment but particularly of doctors in the UK, very few of whom have made any effort at all.
So while, to a degree, the ignorance can be forgiven, the bigotry cannot. It is cowardice. These doctors prefer to cover their own backs, protect themselves and prefer an absurd level of caution to doing what is in their patients’ best interests. The incredibly low risk attached to cannabis in any form, at any age and particularly when under medical supervision, is simply overlooked.
Yes, the medical profession is known to be ‘conservative’ but in the case of cannabis this is an excuse. Yes, we live in an increasingly litigious society but any truly professional doctor would not be cowed by such fear when the evidence is widely available, if they could be bothered to look. And what is this ‘conservatism’ of? Modern medicine is barely a century old. It is new in the history of our species and while the reductionist approach has brought great benefit and made huge advances, it is at the expense of thousands of years of human experience which has been dismissed as valueless.
These doctors may feel that the reforms have been foisted on them with no consultation and little notice but this is not a political game, it affects the lives of millions, from the youngest baby to the oldest, most senior citizens. These doctors are failing in their professional duty. For too long they have enjoyed being regarded with ultimate respect, rarely being questioned or challenged by their patients but those days are gone. Most of the population is now far better informed than ever before, largely because of the internet and although this may cause doctors some problems, they have to learn to live with it. They have to respect their patients, parents and carers and recognise more than ever before that healthcare is about co-operation, about working together. They have to come down from their ivory towers and start delivering truly patient-centred medicine.
