Over one million patients eligible for new medical cannabis exemption card

A groundbreaking new scheme will protect over one million UK patients from arrest and prosecution.

Over 1 million British adults will be eligible to apply for a medical cannabis exemption card from November 1, designed by patients with the backing of senior police officials.

Cancard was conceived by Carly Barton, the first UK patient to receive a private prescription for medical cannabis and a prominent advocate for law reform.

The card has been created for people who suffer from conditions that private healthcare clinicians have been prescribing for since 1 November 2018.

Such treatments are currently unavailable in the NHS and remain beyond the means of all but a few patients.

However, around 1.4 million adults are regularly using cannabis for its therapeutic effects and living in constant fear of police prosecution.

While there is no breakdown of how many medical cannabis patients face criminalisation, Carly says she hears from several people a day in distress and fear of being arrested.

“Everyday I get patients messaging me in distress about their interactions with the police. That’s not because the police have done anything untoward, the police are doing what they feel is their job,” she said.

“We all know that stress and anxiety can perpetuate chronic health conditions, making symptoms much worse. It’s the fear that stops people from doing things such as going to the shops because they can’t take their vaporizer.

“There is an issue with patients being arrested, but what we’re trying to address is the fear and how to help build that community spirit between the patients and the police.”

The scheme has been backed by the Police Federation representing every rank and file police officer in the country, with a working group that includes senior officers from organised crime and the National Police Chiefs Council.

It also highlights the difficult position that frontline police officers are confronted with when enforcing possession offences since medical cannabis law changed in November 2018.

Detective Chief Inspector Jason Kew of Thames Valley Police said: “We are dealing with people in severe pain, being found in possession of a substance which is actually medically proven and prescribed to other people, if you can afford it, but not available on the NHS.

“No one wants to see a patient in custody, that’s that’s definitely not the role of the police, so the card is a brilliant mechanism to help my colleagues dealing with the situations they will face.

He added: “There are various schemes available throughout the 43 police forces that deal with cannabis very differently, this will provide a consistent approach to the medicinal user. It also will change the intervention from a punitive, prohibitive intervention to a health based, more sympathetic outcome.

“What we’re dealing with here is not a criminal, we’re dealing with a patient and this card will highlight that from the outset.”

However, Simon Kempton, a serving Dorset police officer and member of the National Board of the Police Federation of England and Wales, stressed that the scheme is not a ‘get out of jail free card’.

“I joined the police to help vulnerable people and to lock up criminals, not to arrest and criminalise patients and people in pain. We’re brought into this difficult area where the police officer wants to do what is seen as the right thing but is also afraid of not doing their duty,” he said.

“This isn’t a get out of jail free card, it helps me to do my job and keep patients out of the criminal justice system.

“Police officers can use their discretion in these circumstances – if someone’s driving a vehicle and they’re under the influence of cannabis, I have a wider role to protect the public – but Cancard gives us that confidence to say I’m dealing with a patient, not a recreational user.”

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, chair of the APPG for Drug Policy Reform, has also shown his support for the scheme.

He commented: “Despite the law change in November 2018 very few of the estimated 1.4 million people in the UK who consume cannabis for medical reasons have a prescription and thus face prosecution for treating their illness.

“This is a wretched situation both for patients who constantly fear a knock on the door from the police and for the police themselves who are in the unenviable position of having to arrest the sick.”

Referring to the case of a former constituent and sufferer of Guillain Barre syndrome, who was prosecuted for the possession of cannabis just two months ago, he continued: “These prosecutions are happening. This gentleman was in his mid 40’s living with his mother and a former teacher, who had given up work after becoming progressively disabled by his condition.

“No one appears in the decision making chain to take any notice of what his conditions were as to why he chose to consume it to relieve the symptoms of the neuropathy coming from his condition.

“That is why we need an operational police policy. Across the country, supported by a system like Cancard.”

Those eligible will be able to apply for the holographic photo ID card which has been developed in collaboration with GPs and is verified at the patient’s surgery. It will allow them to identify themselves to police as verified medicinal cannabis patients, as well as giving them access to an open source legal defence provided by Cancard should they require it.

Patients will be able to register interest in the scheme as of Wednesday the 9 September so that they can be one of the first to officially apply on 1 November, 2020.

“Cancard removes stigma and offers patients the opportunity to speak to their GPs openly about any use of cannabis for medical intent,” practising GP said founder of the Primary Care Cannabis Network Dr Leon Barron.

But he warned that there is still work to be done to tackle stigma among medical professionals.

“Fortunately there are now a growing number of GPs who are recognising the value of cannabis for therapeutic purposes and are supportive of their patients who choose this alternative treatment pathway,” he added.

“There’s a lot of work to do in terms of educating doctors and opening up prescribing so that these patients can  be seen in clinics or GP surgeries and be prescribed regulated, safe medical products.”

For information on Cancard visit www.cancard.co.uk