Northern Ireland Boy First to Receive Prescription for Medical Cannabis
Eleven-year-old Billy Caldwell is the first person to receive a prescription for medical cannabis in the U.K. under the nation’s National Health Service (NHS.) The Billy’s parents announced on July 10 that young Billy has gone 250 days without a seizure, thanks to the real and measurable effects of medical cannabis.
Billy lives in Castleberg, Northern Ireland, where cannabis is a Class B drug and only CBD is legal in some circumstances. In June 2016, Billy’s mother, Charlotte Caldwell, took her son to a specialist in Los Angeles, California and the doctor found an inoperable lesion on the left temporal lobe of his brain. By then, Billy was constantly suffering from up to 100 seizures per day. An operation would have damaged his brain and took away his speech and memory abilities. But they had one last option—medical cannabis.
Billy saw drastic improvement after taking CBD oil and THCA oil. “I just feel absolutely over the moon that at last we can announce some good news, it’s been a real struggle for us,” Charlotte told the Belfast Telegraph. “This is massive. This little bottle of oil has actually done this for my little boy, so the company said they wanted to name the oil after Billy—we’re just absolutely honored and privileged, these people saved Billy’s life.”
Not only does Billy have an inoperable tumor, but he suffers from autism. Charlotte stated that his eye contact with others has unexpectedly improved as well. She was able to remove special protective boots that prevented him from falling over during a seizure.
The cannabis oil was supplied by GreenLight Medicines, a Dublin-based pharmaceutical company. CBD oil has been reclassified as medicine in the U.K. by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, making it available to certain individuals like Billy. Billy’s Bud, which is high is CBD and non-psychoactive, will be legal in the U.K. Even after Billy’s success, U.K. lawmakers say they want more clinical research done before medical cannabis can be legalized on a broad scale.
