“The Narrative Needs to Change”: Inside The UK’s Cannabis Media Storm

Patients and healthcare professionals have responded to recent media coverage, which they say misrepresented those receiving treatment with cannabis-based medicines in the UK.

On 6 January 2026, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) approved the first official guidance on medical cannabis for officers in England and Wales, news that UK patients have been waiting since 2018 to receive.

Patients, industry, and the police all celebrated this as an imperfect, but overwhelmingly positive step in the right direction for all concerned, recognising the complexity of the issue and the central tenet that law enforcement should approach interactions with a ‘patients first, suspects second’ mindset.

Its author Richard List QPM, a retired veteran police officer who used to lead the UK’s drugs squad, said himself: “In a liberal democracy, if you’re a patient and you’ve had a controlled drug that’s legitimately prescribed by a doctor, you shouldn’t have to worry about any interference from the police.”

Despite this, it took just days before multiple mainstream media outlets had either mischaracterised the guidance, or ignored it entirely in favour of sensationalist stories painting medical cannabis patients as ‘benefits claimants’ using ‘shocking loopholes’ to obtain ‘super strength cannabis’.

While cannabis stigmatisation in the mainstream press is nothing new, several patients reached out to Cannabis Health to share concerns about this coverage, especially in the wake of long-awaited recognition from law enforcement.

Rupa Shah, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at UK medical cannabis clinic Releaf, told Business of Cannabis: “It’s frustrating for us… that narrative needs to change.

“We obviously want to promote our services, but when trying to educate and remove stigma, that’s difficult for us because of the unique restrictions on advertising. We are a commercial company, and by virtue of that, it makes it slightly more difficult. Ideally, trade bodies should be working with government and policy makers, but it’s something we’re still waiting on.”

“We’re in a unique position where I can have access to the people who might be able to change the narrative. But we’re still working within a system that is very, very heavily regulated.”

Why accurate coverage matters

Recently published (November 2025) peer-reviewed research from Lindsey Metcalf McGrath and Helen Beckett Wilson, paints a clear picture of the impact both a lack of police education and the continued stigmatisation in the mainstream press have on patients.

The study, ‘Training the police on legalised medical cannabis: lessons in building public trust, reducing harm, and avoiding reputational damage’, found that of the 94 police constable apprentices, all around 18-months into operational duties, 9 in 10 (88%) said they knew ‘little or nothing about prescribed cannabis, with many having been misinformed during training.

The research, which used data from clinics including Releaf, documented cases where untrained officers caused serious harm to patients: one was reported to social services with her fitness as a parent questioned, despite her legal cannabis prescription helping control epileptic seizures to the point where she no longer needed family support to care for her child.

Black patients expressed particular anxiety about police encounters, given differential stop-and-search rates.

“Situations where police handle things incorrectly and insensitively are particularly harmful given the high proportion of people being prescribed cannabis for anxiety disorders,” the researchers noted.

The study also revealed the deeply entrenched prohibitionist attitudes officers bring to cannabis encounters. Before training, when asked to write the first three words that came to mind about ‘cannabis users,’ officers’ responses included ‘baghead’ (pejorative UK slang for a drug user), ‘addict,’ ‘young,’ and ‘illegal.’

The researchers found that officers held ‘prohibitionist beliefs that cannabis possession is always synonymous with criminality’, beliefs they traced directly to their training. One officer stated bluntly: ‘Anyone is getting locked up. It is illegal to possess.’

“Prohibitionist narratives and stereotypes are correlated with pejorative beliefs which result in the stigmatisation of patients,” the study found.

As a prime example of this dynamic, Shah points to a recent case which ended in a formal complaint being brought against a senior police officer over comments linking the smell of cannabis to criminality.

In response, advocacy group PatientsCann UK submitted a formal complaint against senior policing figures, arguing that such statements ignore the legal status of prescribed medical cannabis and could influence frontline policing attitudes.

“If that’s what police officers are bringing to their interactions [with] patients, [that’s a] massive problem,” Shah said.

The encouraging finding was that evidence-based training dramatically shifted both knowledge and attitudes. After a three-hour workshop covering the 2018 regulations, patient experiences, and proper verification procedures, 67% of officers said they knew “a lot” about prescribed cannabis, while use of the term ‘baghead’ dropped from 10 mentions to zero. References to ‘medical’ rose from three to 39.

The November 2025 research concluded that ‘the updating of police training and procedures are crucial step in the implementation of legal reforms’ and that this remains ‘overdue in the UK’, with its absence ‘causing harm to patients and damaging the reputation of the police.’

Misleading media coverage adds another layer of confusion to an already complex implementation challenge, one that will play out across 43 police forces over months and years.