A new report from the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board has revealed the UK is the world’s largest producer and exporter of legal cannabis for medical and scientific uses.
The report - that includes data from governments around the world - reveals that the UK produced 95 tonnes of legal cannabis in 2016. This is more than double the 2015 total of 42 tonnes, at which point the UK leapfrogged Canada into the number one spot.
This news may come as a surprise to many, given that the UK Government has consistently refused to allow medical cannabis in the UK on the basis that it has ‘no therapeutic value’.
There is, however, one UK licensed cannabis-based medicine called Sativex - (a whole plant cannabis extract in spray form) - produced by GW pharmaceuticals - accounting for a significant proportion of UK legal cannabis production. It is available on prescription, but only via the NHS in Wales.
GW Pharmaceuticals' growing facility. (Image: GW Pharmaceuticals)
Steve Rolles, Transform's Senior Policy Analyst said: “It is scandalous and untenable for the UK government to maintain that cannabis has no medical uses, at the same time as licensing the world’s biggest government approved medical cannabis production and export market.
“UK patients are either denied access and suffering unnecessarily, or are forced to buy cannabis from the criminal market. Countries with proper access to medical cannabis do not have this problem, as standardised cannabis products are in the hands of doctors and pharmacists.
"It is profoundly unethical, and a violation of the fundamental right to health, to deny people access to medicines that are prescribed by their doctors. The government must relax restrictions that grant a monopoly for a single product to a single company. It must allow access to cannabis-based medicines that serve patients needs – what they don’t need is the government’s cruel and misguided war on people who use drugs."
For more information:
Transform
www.tdpf.org.uk
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