Access to cannabis for medical purposes needs to be improved, according to Alfie Dingley's doctor and mother

Despite a change in law last year, access to cannabis for medical purposes in the UK has been much slower than what patients and parents had hoped for, warns an expert. The bmj aujourd & # 39; hui.

David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, says only a very small number of children with severe juvenile epilepsy are treated.

Hannah Deacon, mother of Alfie Dingley – whose high-profile case has been instrumental in changing the law – questions her in a related article. Why was the law changed if access was not to be opened?

Nutt claims that cannabis is the oldest medicine in the world and that it was prescribed by British doctors until 1971, when the law on drug use and addiction declared that the use for medical purposes was illegal.

The government resisted any changes until June 2018, when a highly publicized campaign by Hannah Deacon, on behalf of her son Alfie, led to the first British medical cannabis license and prompted a review of her status. .

A few months later, on November 1, 2018, the law was changed and cannabis products were allowed to be prescribed by specialists or by a general practitioner acting under the instructions of one of them. .

Still, many children continue to have many seizures because neurologists refuse to prescribe it, explains Nutt, citing probable reasons such as lack of training, fear of prescribing a license, refusal to pay from some, and difficulties in sourcing from foreign producers.

"We have to hope the situation will improve," he writes, and to tackle the lack of evidence that he suggests using the cancer research model, where Small groups of experts conduct open efficacy studies to collect data on outcomes and side effects, similar to those already available. where to study ketamine as a potential treatment for depression.

He also mentioned penicillin, another natural medicine well received by British doctors to address a major clinical need, even if its effectiveness has not been tested yet. "If the medical profession could adopt cannabis in the same way as penicillin, then the true value of this herbal medicine should quickly be realized," he concludes.

"Every child with intractable epilepsy should have the right to try cannabis-based medications that could save them from a life of suffering," says Hannah Deacon.

She explains how she had to fight for doctors to prescribe cannabis for medical purposes to her son Alfie to relieve his seizures, but explains that many other children in similar situations have not been able to Access to these medications, even if they are now legal.

Reasons given by doctors include the lack of evidence, money and support from NHS officials.

She is now working with the End Our Pain campaign group, which currently supports 16 families who are in desperate need of medical cannabis prescriptions.

Cannabis-based drugs are not a panacea, she admits, but "It is heartbreaking to note that no NHS doctor seems to want or can prescribe drugs that can help these very sick children, some since many years after trying many other medications. "

She acknowledges that the NHS is underfunded, but says that the costs of long-term care far exceed those of a product that can simply give children and their families a life to live.

"We became activists because we had no choice," she writes. "We are the only advocates for our child and we must do everything in our power to be heard."