A Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from Middlesbrough, a town in North Yorkshire, England, remembered his late son and said he wished he had “the courage” to investigate medical cannabis.
MP Andy McDonald told the Commons about his son Rory, who passed away when he was 16 years old from epilepsy and wondered if investigating cannabis oil would have had an impact on his son’s life. McDonald called on the House not to block measures that could potentially help other children
McDonald’s request came during a debate on the Medical Cannabis (Access) Bill, which creates measures to provide better access and research for use of medical cannabis as treatment. The bill was sponsored by Labour MP Jeff Smith and proposes allowing cannabis medicines by the nation’s general as opposed to only specialist doctors. MP Smith’s bill also proposes establishing a commission on cannabis-based medicines which would be able to implement measures to overcome barriers to access in England and Wales within six months of the bill being passed into law.
“I beg members not to talk this Bill out today, as they have been instructed to do, but to do the right thing and help taking this small step today to help remove one of the barriers that are placed in the way of people so desperately in need of these treatments and give them access to this life-changing, and indeed life-saving, treatment,” McDonald said.
Since cannabis has been able to be prescribed on the National Health Service (NHS) in November 2018, only three prescriptions have been filled, with all going to children that suffer from epilepsy. The current guidelines allow only specialists to prescribe cannabis and there is only believed to be one willing practitioner who prescribes cannabis after the other two specialists retired. There are roughly 10,000 private prescriptions for cannabis medicine in the United Kingdom.
Families of epileptic children planned a protest outside of the Parliament that would allow for greater access to medical cannabis. The End Our Pain group said patients are facing a block on cannabis prescriptions on the NHS, forcing families to go private and spend thousands of pounds.
McDonald made mention of Hannah Deacon, the mother of Alfie Dingley who has campaigned for years for wider access to cannabis after it helped to save the life of her epileptic son. Dingley was the first person in the U.K. to receive a permanent medical cannabis prescription when he was six years old. Dingley has a rare form of epilepsy called PCDH19 and would experience upwards of 500 seizures a month. After taking Bedrolite, a CBD oil, he went 17 days without a seizure.
Deacon said the stigma surrounding cannabis and the NHS pharmaceutical model, which is built on clinical trials, are among the many roadblocks that prevent access to medical cannabis.
“You cannot simply do a randomized controlled trial on a whole plant to cover this product because you still won’t know what the active ingredient truly is,” Deacon said.
The commission that would be established under the Medical Cannabis (Access) Bill would also investigate alternative methods of testing the drugs. Smith agreed that randomized control testing is “not suitable” for whole plant extract cannabis medicines.
During the debate, the bill didn’t receive government backing and ran out of time for MPs to vote. The bill was met with concerns from Conservatives, who warned the new bill would undermine “the independent and regulatory system that we have that is based on science and evidence.” Labour MP for the Gower Tonia Antoniazzi accused Conservatives of attempting to “kick the can down the road” by talking out the bill and using up time.
