Neurologist Calls Upon United Kingdom to Consider Cannabis Legalization

Professor and Neurologist Mike Barnes recently defended cannabis legalization in the wake of seven-year-old Sophia Gibson, who was admitted to the hospital earlier this month due to the seizures brought on by Dravet syndrome.

Barnes insisted that the young girl’s seizures needed to be treated with cannabis oil. However, Sophia and her family were forced to wait for the government to decide whether or not they would allow her to be treated. The professor, who is also a director of Christchurch Group Neurological Rehabilitation, submitted an application to the specialist cannabis panel to get a license for the medicine on Sophia’s behalf.  The British home secretary established the cannabis panel after several cases of children such as Billy Caldwell made headlines for being denied cannabis oil. Earlier this week, Sophia became the first person in the United Kingdom to be afforded a long-term license for cannabis oil treatment through the new panel system.

Barnes critiqued the inefficiency of the government’s new system, stating patients had to overcome “hurdles” just to receive necessary treatment for their health. As a result of these obstacles patients spend more time waiting, which in turn could further compromise their well-being. “Cannabis has to be a medicine of a last resort, you have to prove that nothing else available has worked,” he explained.  “It doesn’t need to be a last choice, it could be second or third choice for many people.”

A recent poll conducted by BMG Research revealed that more than half of the British public already support cannabis legalization and decriminalization. Out of the 1,500 participants who were asked if they supported legal cannabis in a regulated market, 51 percent of them said that they were in favor of such a move.