Cannabis Health Symposium: London

1. 08:30Doors open — registration & networking coffee
2. 09:20

   Opening remarks & welcome

   • Sarah Sinclair · Editor, Cannabis Health
3. 09:25

   Keynote

   Headline partner keynote

   Opening keynote from the Symposium's headline partner, Curaleaf Laboratories.

Morning session: Policy, regulation & access

1. 09:40

   Presentation

   Regulating unlicensed cannabis-based medicines: latest guidance and developments

   Regulatory experts will outline the latest guidance relating to the importation, supply and prescribing of unlicensed medicines, as well as developments surrounding new dosage forms and product categories. Attendees will gain valuable insight into regulatory expectations, compliance requirements and future developments affecting clinics, prescribers and product manufacturers.

2. 10:00

   Presentation

   Cannabis-based medicines and NHS pathways

   Although medical cannabis has been legal in the UK since 2018, access through NHS services remains limited. This session will explore the current NHS landscape for licensed and unlicensed cannabis-based medicines, including referral pathways, prescribing processes, commissioning challenges and barriers to wider adoption — plus how private providers can work effectively alongside NHS services, opportunities for collaborative care models, and what changes may be required to improve patient access within mainstream healthcare settings.

3. 10:20

   Panel discussion

   Building a safe, effective and compliant medical cannabis service

   As the sector continues to mature, robust governance and regulatory compliance remain essential for clinics providing cannabis-based medicines. This practical, workshop-style session will explore the systems, processes and quality standards required to meet Care Quality Commission expectations — common challenges, lessons learned from inspections, and practical strategies for achieving and maintaining good or outstanding ratings. Designed for clinic operators, medical directors and governance leads.

4. 11:00

   Presentation

   Medical cannabis in the workplace: safety, compliance and employee rights

   • Professor Kim Wolff · Director of King's Forensics, King's College London

   As the number of prescribed medical cannabis patients continues to grow, employers and occupational health professionals are increasingly faced with complex questions around workplace safety, drug testing, fitness for work and reasonable adjustments. This session will explore the legal and practical considerations surrounding medical cannabis in employment settings, including the challenges faced by patients working in safety-critical roles — towards fair, evidence-based workplace policies.

5. 11:30

   Presentation

   Medical cannabis police guidance: understanding rights and responsibilities

   • Richard List · National Secretary and CDLO, Association of Police Controlled Drug Liaison Officers

   Despite legalisation, many medical cannabis patients continue to experience confusion and inconsistency when interacting with law enforcement. This session will present the latest police guidance for medical cannabis patients, helping clinicians, patients and healthcare providers better understand the practical implications of the law and how it is being applied across the UK.

6. 12:00

   Presentation

   Setting the Standard: How Harmonisation Turns CBMs Into Trusted Care

   • Ana Serrato · Chair, Cannabis Human Health Subcommittee (D37.11); Chairwoman, EUMCA, ASTM International

   Across Europe, early access programmes for cannabis-based medicines run under fragmented, country-specific rules, each with its own quality expectations, evidence requirements and pathway to patients. That fragmentation leaves manufacturers, regulators and healthcare professionals without a shared language, making it hard to guarantee that patients receive consistently high-quality, safe products wherever they are treated.

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   That is the gap ASTM D37.11: Human Health is built to close, covering product quality, health evidence and responsible use in one framework. Closing it gives manufacturers one consistent technical reference, healthcare professionals reliable evidence to guide prescribing, patients assurance of quality and safety, regulators a harmonised benchmark, and investors the predictability needed for cross-border trade. Trusted cannabinoid-based care will not come from national regulation alone. It requires one shared standard, built for the full journey from product to patient.

7. 12:30

   Session to be announced

8. 13:00Lunch & networking

Afternoon session: Science and clinical practice

1. 14:00

   Panel discussion

   Managing risk and maximising benefit in mental health care

   • Alex Fraser · Founder & Managing Director, Patient Protect

   Mental health remains one of the most discussed and debated areas of medical cannabis practice. This session will examine the current evidence for cannabis-based medicines in psychiatric conditions, while addressing concerns around safety, dependency, psychosis risk and patient selection. Leading psychiatrists and clinicians will discuss prescribing considerations, risk mitigation strategies and the role of cannabis-based medicines within wider mental health treatment pathways. The session will provide practical guidance for clinicians navigating this complex and evolving area of practice.

2. 14:40

   Panel discussion

   Cannabis for Neurological Disorders and Neurodiversity: Fact or Fiction?

   Interest in the use of cannabis-based medicines for neurodevelopmental conditions continues to grow among clinicians, patients and families. This panel discussion will examine the current evidence surrounding the use of CBMPs in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, while exploring gaps in conventional treatment options and emerging understanding of the endocannabinoid system in neurodivergent populations. Combining clinical expertise, research perspectives and lived experience, the session will provide a balanced discussion of the opportunities, challenges and unanswered questions in this rapidly evolving area.

3. 15:00

   Debate

   RCT vs RWE: is it time to look beyond the placebo-controlled trial?

   • Professor David Nutt · Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London, Drug Science

   For the last 50 years, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have been considered the 'gold standard' in research measuring the safety and efficacy of new drugs. But there are known limitations of these types of studies, particularly in cannabinoid medicine, and some argue we should give greater weight to other types of evidence like real-world data when determining whether treatments are safe and effective. In this session, two leading academic experts in psychiatry, addiction and pharmacology will debate whether it's time for the scientific community to look beyond the double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

4. 15:30

   Panel discussion

   Addressing unmet needs in women's health

   Women are increasingly seeking cannabis-based medicines to manage a range of conditions that are often poorly served by conventional treatment options. This multidisciplinary panel will explore the use of medical cannabis across menopause, endometriosis, PMDD, chronic pelvic pain and related disorders — examining the current evidence, clinical experience and future research priorities, and how healthcare providers can better support women seeking alternative treatment approaches.

5. 15:50

   Panel discussion

   Medical Cannabis and Pain Treatment: What Real World Evidence Tells Us

   Chronic pain remains the most common reason patients seek a medical cannabis prescription, yet the evidence base is still catching up with clinical demand. This panel brings together registry data, prescribing experience and independent clinical scrutiny to ask what the real-world evidence actually shows, and where it falls short.

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   Drawing on UK Medical Cannabis Registry outcomes, frontline prescribing experience and the perspective of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, speakers will examine THC:CBD response patterns, opioid-sparing potential, and the data gaps still standing between promising patient outcomes and broader clinical or reimbursement acceptance. Rather than another advocacy panel, this session is built to stress-test the evidence itself: what counts as robust data, what remains anecdotal, and what needs to happen next for medical cannabis to earn its place in mainstream pain management.

6. 16:10

   Panel discussion

   Patient round-table

   Cannabis is a very personalised treatment and good communication between prescribers and their patients is crucial. Listening to the patients' perspective provides clinicians with a vital source of insight into the real-world impact of these medicines, which can help inform future prescribing decisions.

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   This patient round-table will give healthcare and industry professionals a unique opportunity to hear directly from patients about their lived experiences with cannabis-based medicines, from navigating access to managing day-to-day treatment. It will explore how prescribers and the wider care team can work effectively with patients to build trust, meet their needs and deliver person-centred care.

7. 17:00Close

Workshop stage — runs alongside the main programme

1. 11:50

   Presentation

   Patient Safety and the Illicit Market: What Prescribers Need to Know

   • Shanna Marrinan · Director of Research, 4C Labs

   Medical cannabis has an unusually strong safety profile, and even in illicit markets, serious harm is rare. But rare is not the same as absent, and where risk does show up, it rarely comes from the cannabis itself. This session presents new analysis of UK drug-checking data from WEDINOS (Welsh Emerging Drugs & Identification of Novel Substances), examining 578 cannabis-intent samples submitted over an 18-month period through anonymous postal testing and police and prison seizures. Using LC-QTOF chemical analysis capable of detecting novel psychoactive substances, the research found that nearly half of all samples (48.79%) were compromised: containing substances with no natural place in cannabis. Most strikingly, 188 samples contained no cannabinoids at all, having been fully substituted with an active adulterant, while a further 37 combined cannabis with an added psychoactive compound.

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   The scale of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist contamination is a key finding, present in over a quarter of all samples tested, with MDMB-4en-PINACA alone detected in one in five. For clinicians and policymakers, this raises a pointed question: how much of the harm attributed to "cannabis" in unregulated settings is actually harm from something else entirely, deliberately added to boost perceived potency or appeal. The session will walk through the data, unpack the likely motivations and consequences behind this kind of adulteration, and consider what it means for the case for a fully regulated, GMP-certified medical cannabis supply chain, where this category of risk is largely designed out.

   This session covers: how common is adulteration really, what compounds are showing up and why, what these findings suggest about supply chain risk versus cannabis risk itself, and how regulation and GMP standards change the picture.

2. 12:20

   Workshop & Q&A

   Patient discrimination workshop and Q&A

   • Alex Fraser · Founder & Managing Director, Patient Protect

   Prescription cannabis patients continue to face discrimination in policing, employment, housing, healthcare, driving and access to services, often because the law and patients' rights are poorly understood. This workshop draws on Patient Protect casework to explore where discrimination occurs, why it happens, and what patients, professionals and organisations can practically do about it.

3. 14:00

   Workshop

   Beyond Pharmacology: How Social Science Can Improve Medical Cannabis Patient Outcomes

   • Dr Anna Waldstein · Senior Lecturer in Medical Anthropology, University of Kent

   As medical cannabis becomes increasingly integrated into healthcare, attention is often focused on clinical evidence, prescribing practice and pharmacology. However, patient outcomes are influenced by more than the therapeutic properties of cannabis-based medicines alone. Social, cultural and behavioural factors play a significant role in shaping treatment engagement, adherence, patient experience and, ultimately, clinical results.

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   This session explores how insights from sociology and anthropology can enhance medical cannabis care. Social science research on cannabis spans diverse areas, including therapeutic cannabis traditions, patient experiences, health behaviours, stigma, identity, ethnicity and the social determinants of health. These perspectives provide valuable tools for understanding how patients make sense of their illness, develop expectations of treatment, and navigate decisions about cannabis use within their social and cultural environments.

   Drawing on concepts such as explanatory models, illness narratives and structural violence, the session will demonstrate how social science frameworks can be applied in routine clinical practice. Through real-world examples and case studies, participants will learn why patients with similar conditions and prescriptions often report very different experiences and outcomes, and how clinicians can better identify and address non-pharmacological barriers to successful treatment.

   Designed for clinicians involved in medical cannabis prescribing and patient management, this session translates social science research into actionable strategies that can be applied immediately in practice.