#Medical Marijuana doctor Heathrow

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Dr. Lane Phillips spent most of his career treating acute diseases at Heathrow Urgent Care which provided care for over 100,000 patient visits. After watching the increase in the multitude of synthetic medicines being used by the medical profession on his patient's charts, he decided to go back to his core belief and the real reason he went to medical school – prioritizing the prevention of illness over the pharmaceutical treatment of diseases.

This included using natural treatments over medicines when available. He then opened the Dr. Phillips Center for Wellness with the goal of emphasizing proper nutrition including vitamins, minerals, and natural remedies.

[marijuanadoctorsblog]

After Billy and his mother Charlotte disembarked at Heathrow airport, their bags were searched for arriving from Canada. Cannabis vape oil was found by customs authorities and confiscated. Since medical cannabis is not available in the UK, the family sourced small personal-use quantities on Canada trips so that Billy could have THC oil for his epileptic seizures.

Global news outlets covered the unfortunate situation. While the Caldwell family was sorting out that Billy had severe epilepsy and used cannabis therapeutically, the child had a seizure in the airport. The Grand Mal seizure was so bad that Billy Caldwell rushed from the airport to the hospital. It was a life-threatening situation that could have been treated immediately with medical cannabis.

The fact that denying Billy Caldwell access to medicinal cannabis caused an emergency health situation angered many. Patients in the UK have been unsuccessful at lobbying for the legalization of medical cannabis. But Billy and his experience may be the cathartic event that could get the legislative wheels moving in the United Kingdom.

[ralphmorgan-blog1]

Epileptic boy gets cannabis oil back

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Media captionCharlotte Caldwell says "history has been made" after the Home Office allowed her son to use cannabis oil

A boy with severe epilepsy has been given back medicinal cannabis oil that was confiscated from his mother at customs, the home secretary has said.

Billy Caldwell, 12, received the oil after doctors made clear it was a "medical emergency", Sajid Javid said.

Billy's mother, Charlotte Caldwell, from County Tyrone, said they had "achieved the impossible" but called for the oil to be freely available.

Billy began using cannabis oil in 2016 to control his seizures.

The cannabis oil, which contains a substance called Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is illegal in the UK but available elsewhere.

Billy's most recent supply - which Ms Caldwell had tried to bring into the UK from Canada - was confiscated at Heathrow Airport on Monday and he was admitted to hospital before Mr Javid said it would be returned.

The oil arrived at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where Billy is being treated, on Saturday afternoon. It was administered under a special 20-day licence and is not allowed to be taken home.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said it was an "exceptional licence" for a "short term emergency" and it would need to be reviewed.

'Completely broken'

Ms Caldwell said: "I truly believe that somewhere in the Home Office there's someone with a heart, and I truly believe that Billy was pulling on their heart strings."

But she said Billy's "little body has been completely broken and his little mind".

"No other family should have to go through this sort of ordeal, travelling half way round the world to get medication which should be freely available," she said.

"My experience leaves me in no doubt that the Home Office can no longer play a role in the administration of medication for sick children in our country.

"Children are dying in our country and it needs to stop now."

Image caption Billy was admitted to hospital in London on Friday

Mr Javid said he had issued a licence to allow Billy to be treated with the cannabis oil after discussions with Billy's medical team.

"This is a very complex situation, but our immediate priority is making sure Billy receives the most effective treatment possible in a safe way," he said.

"My decision is based on the advice of senior clinicians who have made clear this is a medical emergency.

"The policing minister met with the family on Monday and since then has been working to reach an urgent solution."

Reality Check: Does UK export the most legal cannabis?

Barbara Zieniewicz, co-founder of campaign group Families4Access, and who travelled to Canada with Billy and Ms Caldwell, called Mr Javid's decision "triumphant".

"I strongly believe that this is the first push - from here, it's a ripple effect. This means, to me, there is hope, not just for Billy, but for all the families that need it."

Billy, from Castlederg, started the treatment in 2016 in the US, where medical marijuana is legal.

Ms Caldwell says Billy's seizures dramatically reduce when he takes the oil.

In 2017, he was prescribed the medication on the NHS. But in May this year, his GP was told he could no longer prescribe it.

At the time the Department of Health in Northern Ireland said cannabis had not yet been licensed in the UK as a medicine.

Last Monday, Ms Caldwell tried to bring a six-month supply of the oil - to treat up to 100 seizures a day - into the UK from Toronto but the substance was confiscated by officials at Heathrow airport.

The boy's family said he was taken to hospital when his seizures "intensified" in recent days.

The family's MP, Órfhlaith Begley, said the Home Office's decision was "life-saving", adding: "I will continue to engage with the Home Office and the health authorities to ensure he can access his medication in the longer term so there is no repeat of the trauma he has suffered over recent weeks."

'Not straightforward'

Dr Amir Englund, who studies cannabis at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said: "Clearly, there is evidence that Billy's medication works for him where others have failed.

"The duty of government is to protect its citizens from harm with regulations on medicines, so that the ones doctors prescribe are safe and effective.

"However, there are instances which these measures become counterproductive and harmful. This is such an instance, and the Home Office should allow an exemption so that he does not come to further harm."

Meanwhile, clinical lecturer in psychiatry at University College London, Dr Michael Bloomfield, said on the one hand "current laws are too strict", but added that the issue of medical marijuana is "far from straightforward".

"Any 'medical marijuana' needs a scientific evidence base, in the form of medical trials et cetera, which is currently lacking for many disorders and has become, for many jurisdictions, a potential way of decriminalising cannabis through the back door," he said.

Does cannabis have medicinal benefits?

CBD and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are two types of cannabinoids found naturally in the resin of the marijuana plant.

A cannabis-based drug called Sativex has been licensed in the UK to treat MS. It contains THC and CBD.

Doctors could, in theory, prescribe it for other things outside of this licence, but at their own risk.

MS patients prescribed Sativex, who resupply it to other people, also face prosecution.

Another licensed treatment is Nabilone. It contains an artificial version of THC and can be given to cancer patients to help relieve nausea during chemotherapy.

Source: NHS Choices

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[weedconsortium2]

Fans of the UK morning talkshow This Morning are blasting its hosts for cutting short a segment featuring Charlotte Caldwell, a UK mother who has been at the center of a national controversy surrounding medical cannabis. Caldwell appeared on the show to discuss her ongoing difficulties accessing life-saving cannabis medication for her son Billy Caldwell, who suffers from a severe form of childhood epilepsy.

But This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby abruptly ended their conversation with Charlotte Caldwell, turning instead actors who play doctors on the popular UK soap opera Doctors. Fans viewed the quick end to Caldwell��s heartfelt presentation as derailing an important conversation about life-threatening illness and propping up the anti-drug stigmas surrounding medical cannabis in the UK.

The Story of Billy and Charlotte Caldwell

Since mid-2018, Charlotte Caldwell and her son Billy have been at the center of controversy over medical marijuana laws in the United Kingdom. And it’s because of Caldwell’s tireless advocacy that the UK changed its drug policy slightly to create medical cannabis exemptions in very limited circumstances.

It all began in June 2018, when U.K. border security officials at Heathrow Airport seized the CBD oil Caldwell had obtained in Canada to treat her 12-year-old son Billy’s epilepsy. Billy’s severe form of epilepsy causes up to 100 seizures per day. But CBD oil helped greatly reduce the frequency and intensity of those life-threatening seizures. When boarder officials seized the six-month supply of CBD oil Caldwell came back with from Canada, Caldwell said they “most likely signed my son’s death warrant.”

The very day after officials seized Billy’s medicine, he suffered the first seizures he’d had in months, his mother reported. Four days after being deprived of his CBD oil medication, Billy’s mom had to hospitalize him in critical condition. British media said that legal “rescue medications” failed to stop his massive, intractable epileptic seizure.

In the meantime, Billy’s story went viral, prompting massive, international public outrage and condemnation of the UK’s restrictive medical cannabis policy. The previous year, Billy had received temporary authorization form the National Health Service to obtain and use medical cannabis treatments. But after that authorization expired, Caldwell had to travel to Canada to replenish the supply of CBD oil.

The international outcry ultimately forced UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid to issue a 20-day temporary license for the medication. Resuming his treatment with CBD oil, doctors discharged Billy from the hospital three days after his arrival.

Medical Cannabis Advocate Charlotte Caldwell Silenced on UK Morning Show

Despite nearly costing Billy Caldwell his life, the harrowing incident compelled UK lawmakers and officials to finally address medical cannabis policy. But it wasn’t the end of Billy and Charlotte Caldwell’s difficulties obtaining CBD oil.

Since the 2018 incident at Heathrow, Charlotte Caldwell has had to navigate miles of bureaucratic red tape to keep a supply of CBD oil available for her son. First, she had to seek a license for the medicine from the government of Northern Ireland, where she and Billy live. And to get that, she needed to obtain a second opinion from a doctor in London.

But despite meeting the requirements to obtain the authorization, the NHS in Belfast has so far refused to cover the costs of Billy’s CBD oil medication. As a result, Charlotte has had to pay £1,500 (US$1,900) out of pocket for it. And now, she’s running out, and is struggling to come up with the funds to pay for more.

That’s why Charlotte Caldwell was on This Morning. She was there to share her heart-wrenching story about Billy and to raise public awareness that he and children like him and their families are still struggling to obtain NHS-funded doctor-recommended medical cannabis.

But in the middle of her story, This Morning hosts abruptly cut the segment short. It’s not exactly clear why. But some of the show’s viewers, sympathetic with the Caldwells’ fight, let the show have it.

“This is actually disgusting and the team at #ThisMorning should be ashamed of themselves. Unbelievable,” one fan tweeted. “Extremely rude of Phil & Holly. It was a serious chat about a life-threatening illness! The stigma was there, plain to see from #ThisMorning!” tweeted another.

The post UK Talk Show Hosts Under Fire For Cutting Off Conversation With Cannabis Advocate appeared first on High Times.

The post UK Talk Show Hosts Under Fire For Cutting Off Conversation With Cannabis Advocate appeared first on CBD Oil Vape Liquid Spray - Cbd Pain Relief Capsules - Weed Consortium.

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[wandagreeneus]

Billy Caldwell Receives First Legal Dose Of UK Medical Marijuana After Long Battle

A case that sparked controversy around the UK was led by a very loved 13-year old boy who suffered heavily from epileptic seizures. Billy made history in his country over the weekend when he was given the first legal dose of medical marijuana in the UK.

The reform of marijuana in Britain was brought on by Billy Caldwell and his mother Charlotte from Castlederg, Co Tyrone who had forcibly left the country in November because they were unable to find a doctor that would prescribe medical cannabis, even though the nation had “legalized it.”

Billy and his mother returned from the three-month exile in Canada over the weekend and landed at Heathrow Airport before picking up cannabis from a pharmacy in Surrey after being prescribed by a doctor who got the okay from the Department of Health allowing him to write a prescription.

According to his mother and doctor, since taking medical marijuana medicine, Billy who suffers typically from severe epilepsy has almost been seizure free.

His mother told the Times: I scoured the UK and Ireland for doctors who would not do this. I have lost count of how many emails I sent and phone calls I made. I’d be there in Canada [sending messages at three or four in the morning because of the time difference. She Added, ‘I’m a wee bit emotional, it feels like I am getting out of jail.’

His mother, who had paid for the medicine, noted that Billy would be the first person in the country since NHS reforms to prescribe medical marijuana medicine on the NHS. She highlighted that without this medication Billy would die.

His fight for medication started when he was given one prescription on NHS for cannabis in 2017, yet the Home Office banned his GP from refilling his prescription.

After multiple failed attempts including last summer when the family tried to bring in a fresh supply of medical marijuana from Canada which failed when customs seized it sparked outrage among the public Igniting support from others. His mother made an announcement in the media for the law to be changed allowing medical marijuana to be legally prescribed, along with explaining the severity of her son’s life threating condition.

Just days later the press captured her cradling Billy on the way to Londons Chealse and Westminister Hospital. When the media stopped her, she expressed in tears about her‘ beautiful, sweet, innocent boy’ who was suffering ‘life-threatening’ seizures and didn’t deserve this ‘callous treatment.’

Which led to the Home Office releasing some of the confiscated medicine, containing the legal cannabidiol (CBD) and banned tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound associated with the ‘high’ that users experience.

They allowed doctors to administer one of the seven bottles of drugs his mother had initially been brought from Canada, under a 20-day license.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged the House of Commons that it was time for the country to “review the scheduling of cannabis’ for medicinal use.”

Within months Mr. Javid’s investigation led to a change in the law.

With any change comes backlash, and many groups claim that the reform has had little effect and could be harmful. Opponents who discourage doctors from prescribing medical marijuana were removed from pharmaceutical institutions head positions.

For example, one agency British Paediatric Neurology Association received letters from more than 30 parents, accusing corporate of ‘ignoring the law change’ and causing ‘barriers and threats to those seeking treatment.’ The UK not only has changed Billy’s life but the lives of many.

    from http://www.ivdaily.com/billy-caldwell-receives-first-legal-dose-of-uk-medical-marijuana-after-long-battle

source http://ivdaily.weebly.com/blog/billy-caldwell-receives-first-legal-dose-of-uk-medical-marijuana-after-long-battle

[wendyjimenezus]

Billy Caldwell Receives First Legal Dose Of UK Medical Marijuana After Long Battle

A case that sparked controversy around the UK was led by a very loved 13-year old boy who suffered heavily from epileptic seizures. Billy made history in his country over the weekend when he was given the first legal dose of medical marijuana in the UK.

The reform of marijuana in Britain was brought on by Billy Caldwell and his mother Charlotte from Castlederg, Co Tyrone who had forcibly left the country in November because they were unable to find a doctor that would prescribe medical cannabis, even though the nation had “legalized it.”

Billy and his mother returned from the three-month exile in Canada over the weekend and landed at Heathrow Airport before picking up cannabis from a pharmacy in Surrey after being prescribed by a doctor who got the okay from the Department of Health allowing him to write a prescription.

According to his mother and doctor, since taking medical marijuana medicine, Billy who suffers typically from severe epilepsy has almost been seizure free.

His mother told the Times: I scoured the UK and Ireland for doctors who would not do this. I have lost count of how many emails I sent and phone calls I made. I’d be there in Canada [sending messages at three or four in the morning because of the time difference. She Added, ‘I’m a wee bit emotional, it feels like I am getting out of jail.’

His mother, who had paid for the medicine, noted that Billy would be the first person in the country since NHS reforms to prescribe medical marijuana medicine on the NHS. She highlighted that without this medication Billy would die.

His fight for medication started when he was given one prescription on NHS for cannabis in 2017, yet the Home Office banned his GP from refilling his prescription.

After multiple failed attempts including last summer when the family tried to bring in a fresh supply of medical marijuana from Canada which failed when customs seized it sparked outrage among the public Igniting support from others. His mother made an announcement in the media for the law to be changed allowing medical marijuana to be legally prescribed, along with explaining the severity of her son’s life threating condition.

Just days later the press captured her cradling Billy on the way to Londons Chealse and Westminister Hospital. When the media stopped her, she expressed in tears about her‘ beautiful, sweet, innocent boy’ who was suffering ‘life-threatening’ seizures and didn’t deserve this ‘callous treatment.’

Which led to the Home Office releasing some of the confiscated medicine, containing the legal cannabidiol (CBD) and banned tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound associated with the ‘high’ that users experience.

They allowed doctors to administer one of the seven bottles of drugs his mother had initially been brought from Canada, under a 20-day license.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged the House of Commons that it was time for the country to “review the scheduling of cannabis’ for medicinal use.”

Within months Mr. Javid’s investigation led to a change in the law.

With any change comes backlash, and many groups claim that the reform has had little effect and could be harmful. Opponents who discourage doctors from prescribing medical marijuana were removed from pharmaceutical institutions head positions.

For example, one agency British Paediatric Neurology Association received letters from more than 30 parents, accusing corporate of ‘ignoring the law change’ and causing ‘barriers and threats to those seeking treatment.’ The UK not only has changed Billy’s life but the lives of many.

  from Daily News http://www.ivdaily.com/billy-caldwell-receives-first-legal-dose-of-uk-medical-marijuana-after-long-battle source https://ivdaily.tumblr.com/post/182721187712

[donaldehillfl]

Billy Caldwell Receives First Legal Dose Of UK Medical Marijuana After Long Battle

A case that sparked controversy around the UK was led by a very loved 13-year old boy who suffered heavily from epileptic seizures. Billy made history in his country over the weekend when he was given the first legal dose of medical marijuana in the UK.

The reform of marijuana in Britain was brought on by Billy Caldwell and his mother Charlotte from Castlederg, Co Tyrone who had forcibly left the country in November because they were unable to find a doctor that would prescribe medical cannabis, even though the nation had “legalized it.”

Billy and his mother returned from the three-month exile in Canada over the weekend and landed at Heathrow Airport before picking up cannabis from a pharmacy in Surrey after being prescribed by a doctor who got the okay from the Department of Health allowing him to write a prescription.

According to his mother and doctor, since taking medical marijuana medicine, Billy who suffers typically from severe epilepsy has almost been seizure free.

His mother told the Times: I scoured the UK and Ireland for doctors who would not do this. I have lost count of how many emails I sent and phone calls I made. I’d be there in Canada [sending messages at three or four in the morning because of the time difference. She Added, ‘I’m a wee bit emotional, it feels like I am getting out of jail.’

His mother, who had paid for the medicine, noted that Billy would be the first person in the country since NHS reforms to prescribe medical marijuana medicine on the NHS. She highlighted that without this medication Billy would die.

His fight for medication started when he was given one prescription on NHS for cannabis in 2017, yet the Home Office banned his GP from refilling his prescription.

After multiple failed attempts including last summer when the family tried to bring in a fresh supply of medical marijuana from Canada which failed when customs seized it sparked outrage among the public Igniting support from others. His mother made an announcement in the media for the law to be changed allowing medical marijuana to be legally prescribed, along with explaining the severity of her son’s life threating condition.

Just days later the press captured her cradling Billy on the way to Londons Chealse and Westminister Hospital. When the media stopped her, she expressed in tears about her‘ beautiful, sweet, innocent boy’ who was suffering ‘life-threatening’ seizures and didn’t deserve this ‘callous treatment.’

Which led to the Home Office releasing some of the confiscated medicine, containing the legal cannabidiol (CBD) and banned tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound associated with the ‘high’ that users experience.

They allowed doctors to administer one of the seven bottles of drugs his mother had initially been brought from Canada, under a 20-day license.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid urged the House of Commons that it was time for the country to “review the scheduling of cannabis’ for medicinal use.”

Within months Mr. Javid’s investigation led to a change in the law.

With any change comes backlash, and many groups claim that the reform has had little effect and could be harmful. Opponents who discourage doctors from prescribing medical marijuana were removed from pharmaceutical institutions head positions.

For example, one agency British Paediatric Neurology Association received letters from more than 30 parents, accusing corporate of ‘ignoring the law change’ and causing ‘barriers and threats to those seeking treatment.’ The UK not only has changed Billy’s life but the lives of many.

    source http://www.ivdaily.com/billy-caldwell-receives-first-legal-dose-of-uk-medical-marijuana-after-long-battle from Ivdaily https://ivdaily.blogspot.com/2019/02/billy-caldwell-receives-first-legal.html

[shatterlabels]

Blazing a trail: as legal cannabis goes global, will Britain be next? New laws in California and Canada, plus a high-profile UK medical case, have made it safer for nations to come out of the green closet. Three major developments in June, including the case of a British boy with severe epilepsy, are likely to accelerate international acceptance of marijuana. On 11 June, Charlotte Caldwell landed at Heathrow airport with her 12-year-old son, Billy, with a six-month supply of cannabis oil, the most effective medicine she’d found for her young child’s epilepsy. She declared the medicine, which she’d legally bought in Canada, to British border officials, who confiscated it, despite Caldwell’s pleas. Unable to take his medicine, Billy was admitted just a few days later to hospital in “life threatening” condition. Sajid Javid, the home minister, was forced to issue an emergency license to allow doctors to treat Billy with cannabis oil. The case sparked an outcry, and Javid called for a review of the UK’s medical marijuana policy which recommended that clinicians should be able to prescribe medical marijuana. Inevitably, talk about full legalization has followed. According to recent polls, 82% of Britons support legalizing medical marijuana and 51% support full legalization. Then on 19 June, Canada’s parliament voted to become the first G7 nation to fully legalize, with – legalization day scheduled for 17 October. Afterwards, the senator Tony Dean told reporters: “We’ve just witnessed a very historic vote that ends 90 years of prohibition.” In an email, Peter Reynolds, the president of UK cannabis reform group Clear, called it “the most dramatic shift in drugs policy probably since [the Dangerous Drugs Act] of 1925”. Rounding out the month, on 25 June the US Food and Drug Administration approved, for the first time, a drug derived from the marijuana plant. The UK firm GW Pharmaceuticals invented the drug, Epidiolex, to treat two kinds of severe childhood epilepsy. Relaxing attitudes in the US, and legalization in several states have made it safer for other nations to come out of the green closet. Despite the drug’s goofy reputation, the subsequent shows of of in (at Los Angeles, California)

[blockheadbrands]

Another Epileptic Child Granted License to Use Medical Cannabis in UK

A.J. Herrington of High Times Reports:

On the heels of Billy Caldwell’s victory, 6-year-old Alfie Dingley will also be allowed to resume medical marijuana treatment.

The UK government has granted a license to use medical cannabis to another child with epilepsy. Alfie Dingley, a six-year-old from Kenilworth, England will now be able to use a medical marijuana therapy to treat his condition. The news comes after another UK boy, Billy Caldwell, received a similar license over the weekend.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced the decision in Parliament Tuesday. Javid also told the House of Commons that he is launching a review of the regulation of medicinal cannabis. That discussion could eventually make it easier for doctors to prescribe medical marijuana therapies in the UK.

“It has become clear to me that the position we find ourselves in currently is not satisfactory,” Javid said. “It’s not satisfactory for the parents, it’s not satisfactory for the doctors, and it’s not satisfactory for me. I have now come to the conclusion that it is time to review the scheduling of cannabis.”

Alfie has a rare form of epilepsy that can cause up to 30 seizures per day. He had been successfully using a cannabis medicine to treat his illness after the family moved to the Netherlands, where it is legal. But they had to return home when funds ran out and turned to the UK government for help.

Mum Receives News on Live TV

Alfie’s mother, Hannah Deacon, received the news of Javid’s decision on live television. During an interview about her struggle to obtain medicinal cannabis for Alfie, a reporter told Deacon that Javid had approved the license. The reporter then asked Deacon for her reaction.

“It’s amazing news, thank you very much for letting me know,” Deacon said as she began to cry.

In March, Deacon and Alfie’s father, Drew Dingley, met with UK Prime Minister Theresa Mayin a bid to secure a prescription for her son. During that meeting, Alfie’s parents delivered a petition with the signatures of nearly 380,000 people calling on May to grant the license. Alfie also received support from actor Sir Patrick Stewart.

After the meeting, Deacon told reporters that the government had “approved in principle” granting the license to Alfie.

“We had a positive meeting, they accept the compassionate issuing of a license for Alfie,” Deacon said.“Now we need our medical professionals to write the prescription.”

But three months later, the license still had not come through for Alfie. Before learning of Javid’s decision, Deacon shared her frustration during Tuesday’s interview.

“I met the Prime Minister on March 20 in Number 10. I appealed to her directly,” Deacon told the interviewer.

“She looked at me. She met my son and she told me that they would find a way in which our clinicians could be issued with a Schedule 1 license to give my son the medicine that he had in Holland. I believed her.”

License Is Second Granted by UK Government This Week

The UK government granted Alfie’s license to use medical cannabis only days after it did the same for Billy Caldwell. The 12-year-old had also been using cannabis to treat epilepsy. Billy was the first patient in the UK to receive a prescription for a cannabis therapy from the National Health Service. But when the government announced it what not allow any more prescriptions, Billy and his mother flew to Canada to receive more medicine.

Border officials then seized the medicine at Heathrow Airport when they returned home. The medicine was returned after a series of seizures put Billy in the hospital.

The boy has since recovered and been discharged.

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON HIGH TIMES, CLICK HERE.

https://hightimes.com/news/another-epileptic-child-granted-license-use-medical-cannabis-uk/

[cleopatrarps]

Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules

LONDON — Britain’s home secretary, Sajid Javid, ordered a review on Tuesday of the nation’s policy on the medical use of marijuana, days after a 12-year-old’s cannabis-based epilepsy medicine was confiscated at Heathrow Airport, prompting a national discussion as the boy fought life-threatening seizures and politicians procrastinated.

The boy, Billy Caldwell, suffers from status epilepticus, a kind of seizure that can last for hours. When a seizure takes hold he sometimes starts to turn blue. And without treatment, one could be fatal. Over the weekend, Mr. Javid authorized the use of the medicine to treat him.

The spectacle of one boy’s agonizing battle against an inflexible bureaucracy has made Prime Minister Theresa May’s response look flat-footed, while prompting a wider debate about legalizing the drug itself for recreational use.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, William Hague, a former leader of Mrs. May’s Conservative Party, argued that by retreating and allowing the cannabis oil to be used, the government had “implicitly conceded that the law has become indefensible.”

He cited the debate in Canada, where legalization of cannabis is close. “It should now be asked whether Britain should join the many other countries that permit medical-grade marijuana, or indeed join Canada in preparing for a lawful, regulated market in cannabis for recreational use as well,” he said.

And Mr. Hague, who once advocated a “zero tolerance” drugs policy, conceded that “as far as marijuana, or cannabis, is concerned any war has been comprehensively and irreversibly lost.” Ordering the police to defeat its use was, he wrote, like asking the British Army to recover the country’s long-lost empire.

The call to legalize recreational cannabis use was rejected on Tuesday by the government of Mrs. May, a former home secretary who took a conventionally tough line on drugs during her six years in the job, and seems in no mood to slaughter that sacred cow.

Last week there was confusion over whether laws on medical use of cannabis were being reviewed and, according to British media reports, Mrs. May blocked a discussion about it at her cabinet on Monday.

But on Tuesday Mr. Javid told lawmakers that the current system “is not satisfactory for the patients, it is not satisfactory for the doctors and it is not satisfactory for me.”

Mr. Javid stressed that this was “in no way a first step to the legalization of cannabis for recreational use.”

Nevertheless, he announced that a special license would be granted for cannabis medication in another case that has embarrassed the government, that of Alfie Dingley, aged 6, who suffers up to 150 seizures a month.

One Conservative member of Parliament, Mike Penning, had threatened to lead a delegation of lawmakers to secure medical cannabis for the boy abroad, after a promise of help from Mrs. May led to nothing after three months.

Heather Deacon, the mother of Alfie Dingley, told the BBC that she had believed Mrs. May’s assurances after a meeting on March 20. “She looked at me. She met my son and she told me that they would find a way,” said Ms. Deacon.

“That was three months ago,” she added. “All that we have been put through is bureaucracy, hurdles — hurdles after hurdles after hurdles.”

Before Tuesday’s announcement, Mr. Javid’s decision to authorize temporary treatment for Billy Caldwell had already been praised by his mother, Charlotte Caldwell.

After her son was discharged from the hospital on Monday, Ms. Caldwell told the talk radio station LBC that “some heroes don’t wear capes,” but that Mr. Javid “stood up and was Billy’s hero.” She was less flattering about Mrs. May, calling on her to “step up to the plate.”

“These kids are living 24 hours a day with life-threatening seizures,” she added. “Their lives are broken, their bodies are broken.”

The case captured headlines when the medicine was confiscated from Ms. Caldwell at Heathrow Airport on June 11, as she returned from Canada. Ms. Caldwell had flown there seeking supplies of the drug after the Home Office halted a prescription that her son had received from his doctor — a treatment she believed had kept him free of seizures for nearly 10 months.

In an earlier interview with the news website MailOnline, Ms. Caldwell was quoted describing her son’s seizures as “silent killers,” and added that one had lasted seven-and-a-half hours.

On Tuesday, there was a broad welcome for the review announced by Mr. Javid over medicinal use of cannabis, but less consensus on overall drug policy.

For years, British politicians have struggled to form a coherent set of policies around recreational cannabis use, which has involved around 6.6 percent of adults, about 2.2 million people, according to official statistics.

In 2002 cannabis was downgraded to a Class C drug, equivalent to steroids, removing the threat of arrest from those in possession of small quantities. But in 2008 it was restored to Class B status, which carries penalties for possession of up to five years in prison.

Writing in the Guardian, the commentator Simon Jenkins declared that cannabis was available in many schools and universities, clubs and festivals, and most British police forces “turn a blind eye to modest possession.” Billy Caldwell was denied it, Mr. Jenkins argues, “because his drug is refined, safe and requires chemical preparation.”

On Tuesday in Parliament there seemed only limited support for the legalization of recreational cannabis use, although Norman Lamb, a lawmaker for the centrist Liberal Democrats, spoke about the “dreadful hypocrisy” of government policy.

“Probably most of the cabinet drinks alcohol, the most dangerous drug of all,” he said, adding that he believed perhaps half of the cabinet had used cannabis recreationally.

Likewise Diane Abbott, the home affairs spokeswoman for Labour, the main opposition party, recalled comments by a former chairman of the government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs who argued that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal products.

But that advice was not popular among British politicians when it was proffered in 2009. The adviser, Prof. David Nutt, resigned soon afterward.

The post Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules appeared first on World The News.

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Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules

LONDON — Britain’s home secretary, Sajid Javid, ordered a review on Tuesday of the nation’s policy on the medical use of marijuana, days after a 12-year-old’s cannabis-based epilepsy medicine was confiscated at Heathrow Airport, prompting a national discussion as the boy fought life-threatening seizures and politicians procrastinated.

The boy, Billy Caldwell, suffers from status epilepticus, a kind of seizure that can last for hours. When a seizure takes hold he sometimes starts to turn blue. And without treatment, one could be fatal. Over the weekend, Mr. Javid authorized the use of the medicine to treat him.

The spectacle of one boy’s agonizing battle against an inflexible bureaucracy has made Prime Minister Theresa May’s response look flat-footed, while prompting a wider debate about legalizing the drug itself for recreational use.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, William Hague, a former leader of Mrs. May’s Conservative Party, argued that by retreating and allowing the cannabis oil to be used, the government had “implicitly conceded that the law has become indefensible.”

He cited the debate in Canada, where legalization of cannabis is close. “It should now be asked whether Britain should join the many other countries that permit medical-grade marijuana, or indeed join Canada in preparing for a lawful, regulated market in cannabis for recreational use as well,” he said.

And Mr. Hague, who once advocated a “zero tolerance” drugs policy, conceded that “as far as marijuana, or cannabis, is concerned any war has been comprehensively and irreversibly lost.” Ordering the police to defeat its use was, he wrote, like asking the British Army to recover the country’s long-lost empire.

The call to legalize recreational cannabis use was rejected on Tuesday by the government of Mrs. May, a former home secretary who took a conventionally tough line on drugs during her six years in the job, and seems in no mood to slaughter that sacred cow.

Last week there was confusion over whether laws on medical use of cannabis were being reviewed and, according to British media reports, Mrs. May blocked a discussion about it at her cabinet on Monday.

But on Tuesday Mr. Javid told lawmakers that the current system “is not satisfactory for the patients, it is not satisfactory for the doctors and it is not satisfactory for me.”

Mr. Javid stressed that this was “in no way a first step to the legalization of cannabis for recreational use.”

Nevertheless, he announced that a special license would be granted for cannabis medication in another case that has embarrassed the government, that of Alfie Dingley, aged 6, who suffers up to 150 seizures a month.

One Conservative member of Parliament, Mike Penning, had threatened to lead a delegation of lawmakers to secure medical cannabis for the boy abroad, after a promise of help from Mrs. May led to nothing after three months.

Heather Deacon, the mother of Alfie Dingley, told the BBC that she had believed Mrs. May’s assurances after a meeting on March 20. “She looked at me. She met my son and she told me that they would find a way,” said Ms. Deacon.

“That was three months ago,” she added. “All that we have been put through is bureaucracy, hurdles — hurdles after hurdles after hurdles.”

Before Tuesday’s announcement, Mr. Javid’s decision to authorize temporary treatment for Billy Caldwell had already been praised by his mother, Charlotte Caldwell.

After her son was discharged from the hospital on Monday, Ms. Caldwell told the talk radio station LBC that “some heroes don’t wear capes,” but that Mr. Javid “stood up and was Billy’s hero.” She was less flattering about Mrs. May, calling on her to “step up to the plate.”

“These kids are living 24 hours a day with life-threatening seizures,” she added. “Their lives are broken, their bodies are broken.”

The case captured headlines when the medicine was confiscated from Ms. Caldwell at Heathrow Airport on June 11, as she returned from Canada. Ms. Caldwell had flown there seeking supplies of the drug after the Home Office halted a prescription that her son had received from his doctor — a treatment she believed had kept him free of seizures for nearly 10 months.

In an earlier interview with the news website MailOnline, Ms. Caldwell was quoted describing her son’s seizures as “silent killers,” and added that one had lasted seven-and-a-half hours.

On Tuesday, there was a broad welcome for the review announced by Mr. Javid over medicinal use of cannabis, but less consensus on overall drug policy.

For years, British politicians have struggled to form a coherent set of policies around recreational cannabis use, which has involved around 6.6 percent of adults, about 2.2 million people, according to official statistics.

In 2002 cannabis was downgraded to a Class C drug, equivalent to steroids, removing the threat of arrest from those in possession of small quantities. But in 2008 it was restored to Class B status, which carries penalties for possession of up to five years in prison.

Writing in the Guardian, the commentator Simon Jenkins declared that cannabis was available in many schools and universities, clubs and festivals, and most British police forces “turn a blind eye to modest possession.” Billy Caldwell was denied it, Mr. Jenkins argues, “because his drug is refined, safe and requires chemical preparation.”

On Tuesday in Parliament there seemed only limited support for the legalization of recreational cannabis use, although Norman Lamb, a lawmaker for the centrist Liberal Democrats, spoke about the “dreadful hypocrisy” of government policy.

“Probably most of the cabinet drinks alcohol, the most dangerous drug of all,” he said, adding that he believed perhaps half of the cabinet had used cannabis recreationally.

Likewise Diane Abbott, the home affairs spokeswoman for Labour, the main opposition party, recalled comments by a former chairman of the government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs who argued that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal products.

But that advice was not popular among British politicians when it was proffered in 2009. The adviser, Prof. David Nutt, resigned soon afterward.

The post Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules appeared first on World The News.

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Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules

LONDON — Britain’s home secretary, Sajid Javid, ordered a review on Tuesday of the nation’s policy on the medical use of marijuana, days after a 12-year-old’s cannabis-based epilepsy medicine was confiscated at Heathrow Airport, prompting a national discussion as the boy fought life-threatening seizures and politicians procrastinated.

The boy, Billy Caldwell, suffers from status epilepticus, a kind of seizure that can last for hours. When a seizure takes hold he sometimes starts to turn blue. And without treatment, one could be fatal. Over the weekend, Mr. Javid authorized the use of the medicine to treat him.

The spectacle of one boy’s agonizing battle against an inflexible bureaucracy has made Prime Minister Theresa May’s response look flat-footed, while prompting a wider debate about legalizing the drug itself for recreational use.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, William Hague, a former leader of Mrs. May’s Conservative Party, argued that by retreating and allowing the cannabis oil to be used, the government had “implicitly conceded that the law has become indefensible.”

He cited the debate in Canada, where legalization of cannabis is close. “It should now be asked whether Britain should join the many other countries that permit medical-grade marijuana, or indeed join Canada in preparing for a lawful, regulated market in cannabis for recreational use as well,” he said.

And Mr. Hague, who once advocated a “zero tolerance” drugs policy, conceded that “as far as marijuana, or cannabis, is concerned any war has been comprehensively and irreversibly lost.” Ordering the police to defeat its use was, he wrote, like asking the British Army to recover the country’s long-lost empire.

The call to legalize recreational cannabis use was rejected on Tuesday by the government of Mrs. May, a former home secretary who took a conventionally tough line on drugs during her six years in the job, and seems in no mood to slaughter that sacred cow.

Last week there was confusion over whether laws on medical use of cannabis were being reviewed and, according to British media reports, Mrs. May blocked a discussion about it at her cabinet on Monday.

But on Tuesday Mr. Javid told lawmakers that the current system “is not satisfactory for the patients, it is not satisfactory for the doctors and it is not satisfactory for me.”

Mr. Javid stressed that this was “in no way a first step to the legalization of cannabis for recreational use.”

Nevertheless, he announced that a special license would be granted for cannabis medication in another case that has embarrassed the government, that of Alfie Dingley, aged 6, who suffers up to 150 seizures a month.

One Conservative member of Parliament, Mike Penning, had threatened to lead a delegation of lawmakers to secure medical cannabis for the boy abroad, after a promise of help from Mrs. May led to nothing after three months.

Heather Deacon, the mother of Alfie Dingley, told the BBC that she had believed Mrs. May’s assurances after a meeting on March 20. “She looked at me. She met my son and she told me that they would find a way,” said Ms. Deacon.

“That was three months ago,” she added. “All that we have been put through is bureaucracy, hurdles — hurdles after hurdles after hurdles.”

Before Tuesday’s announcement, Mr. Javid’s decision to authorize temporary treatment for Billy Caldwell had already been praised by his mother, Charlotte Caldwell.

After her son was discharged from the hospital on Monday, Ms. Caldwell told the talk radio station LBC that “some heroes don’t wear capes,” but that Mr. Javid “stood up and was Billy’s hero.” She was less flattering about Mrs. May, calling on her to “step up to the plate.”

“These kids are living 24 hours a day with life-threatening seizures,” she added. “Their lives are broken, their bodies are broken.”

The case captured headlines when the medicine was confiscated from Ms. Caldwell at Heathrow Airport on June 11, as she returned from Canada. Ms. Caldwell had flown there seeking supplies of the drug after the Home Office halted a prescription that her son had received from his doctor — a treatment she believed had kept him free of seizures for nearly 10 months.

In an earlier interview with the news website MailOnline, Ms. Caldwell was quoted describing her son’s seizures as “silent killers,” and added that one had lasted seven-and-a-half hours.

On Tuesday, there was a broad welcome for the review announced by Mr. Javid over medicinal use of cannabis, but less consensus on overall drug policy.

For years, British politicians have struggled to form a coherent set of policies around recreational cannabis use, which has involved around 6.6 percent of adults, about 2.2 million people, according to official statistics.

In 2002 cannabis was downgraded to a Class C drug, equivalent to steroids, removing the threat of arrest from those in possession of small quantities. But in 2008 it was restored to Class B status, which carries penalties for possession of up to five years in prison.

Writing in the Guardian, the commentator Simon Jenkins declared that cannabis was available in many schools and universities, clubs and festivals, and most British police forces “turn a blind eye to modest possession.” Billy Caldwell was denied it, Mr. Jenkins argues, “because his drug is refined, safe and requires chemical preparation.”

On Tuesday in Parliament there seemed only limited support for the legalization of recreational cannabis use, although Norman Lamb, a lawmaker for the centrist Liberal Democrats, spoke about the “dreadful hypocrisy” of government policy.

“Probably most of the cabinet drinks alcohol, the most dangerous drug of all,” he said, adding that he believed perhaps half of the cabinet had used cannabis recreationally.

Likewise Diane Abbott, the home affairs spokeswoman for Labour, the main opposition party, recalled comments by a former chairman of the government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs who argued that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal products.

But that advice was not popular among British politicians when it was proffered in 2009. The adviser, Prof. David Nutt, resigned soon afterward.

The post Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2JZb3oO via Breaking News

[newestbalance]

Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules

LONDON — Britain’s home secretary, Sajid Javid, ordered a review on Tuesday of the nation’s policy on the medical use of marijuana, days after a 12-year-old’s cannabis-based epilepsy medicine was confiscated at Heathrow Airport, prompting a national discussion as the boy fought life-threatening seizures and politicians procrastinated.

The boy, Billy Caldwell, suffers from status epilepticus, a kind of seizure that can last for hours. When a seizure takes hold he sometimes starts to turn blue. And without treatment, one could be fatal. Over the weekend, Mr. Javid authorized the use of the medicine to treat him.

The spectacle of one boy’s agonizing battle against an inflexible bureaucracy has made Prime Minister Theresa May’s response look flat-footed, while prompting a wider debate about legalizing the drug itself for recreational use.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, William Hague, a former leader of Mrs. May’s Conservative Party, argued that by retreating and allowing the cannabis oil to be used, the government had “implicitly conceded that the law has become indefensible.”

He cited the debate in Canada, where legalization of cannabis is close. “It should now be asked whether Britain should join the many other countries that permit medical-grade marijuana, or indeed join Canada in preparing for a lawful, regulated market in cannabis for recreational use as well,” he said.

And Mr. Hague, who once advocated a “zero tolerance” drugs policy, conceded that “as far as marijuana, or cannabis, is concerned any war has been comprehensively and irreversibly lost.” Ordering the police to defeat its use was, he wrote, like asking the British Army to recover the country’s long-lost empire.

The call to legalize recreational cannabis use was rejected on Tuesday by the government of Mrs. May, a former home secretary who took a conventionally tough line on drugs during her six years in the job, and seems in no mood to slaughter that sacred cow.

Last week there was confusion over whether laws on medical use of cannabis were being reviewed and, according to British media reports, Mrs. May blocked a discussion about it at her cabinet on Monday.

But on Tuesday Mr. Javid told lawmakers that the current system “is not satisfactory for the patients, it is not satisfactory for the doctors and it is not satisfactory for me.”

Mr. Javid stressed that this was “in no way a first step to the legalization of cannabis for recreational use.”

Nevertheless, he announced that a special license would be granted for cannabis medication in another case that has embarrassed the government, that of Alfie Dingley, aged 6, who suffers up to 150 seizures a month.

One Conservative member of Parliament, Mike Penning, had threatened to lead a delegation of lawmakers to secure medical cannabis for the boy abroad, after a promise of help from Mrs. May led to nothing after three months.

Heather Deacon, the mother of Alfie Dingley, told the BBC that she had believed Mrs. May’s assurances after a meeting on March 20. “She looked at me. She met my son and she told me that they would find a way,” said Ms. Deacon.

“That was three months ago,” she added. “All that we have been put through is bureaucracy, hurdles — hurdles after hurdles after hurdles.”

Before Tuesday’s announcement, Mr. Javid’s decision to authorize temporary treatment for Billy Caldwell had already been praised by his mother, Charlotte Caldwell.

After her son was discharged from the hospital on Monday, Ms. Caldwell told the talk radio station LBC that “some heroes don’t wear capes,” but that Mr. Javid “stood up and was Billy’s hero.” She was less flattering about Mrs. May, calling on her to “step up to the plate.”

“These kids are living 24 hours a day with life-threatening seizures,” she added. “Their lives are broken, their bodies are broken.”

The case captured headlines when the medicine was confiscated from Ms. Caldwell at Heathrow Airport on June 11, as she returned from Canada. Ms. Caldwell had flown there seeking supplies of the drug after the Home Office halted a prescription that her son had received from his doctor — a treatment she believed had kept him free of seizures for nearly 10 months.

In an earlier interview with the news website MailOnline, Ms. Caldwell was quoted describing her son’s seizures as “silent killers,” and added that one had lasted seven-and-a-half hours.

On Tuesday, there was a broad welcome for the review announced by Mr. Javid over medicinal use of cannabis, but less consensus on overall drug policy.

For years, British politicians have struggled to form a coherent set of policies around recreational cannabis use, which has involved around 6.6 percent of adults, about 2.2 million people, according to official statistics.

In 2002 cannabis was downgraded to a Class C drug, equivalent to steroids, removing the threat of arrest from those in possession of small quantities. But in 2008 it was restored to Class B status, which carries penalties for possession of up to five years in prison.

Writing in the Guardian, the commentator Simon Jenkins declared that cannabis was available in many schools and universities, clubs and festivals, and most British police forces “turn a blind eye to modest possession.” Billy Caldwell was denied it, Mr. Jenkins argues, “because his drug is refined, safe and requires chemical preparation.”

On Tuesday in Parliament there seemed only limited support for the legalization of recreational cannabis use, although Norman Lamb, a lawmaker for the centrist Liberal Democrats, spoke about the “dreadful hypocrisy” of government policy.

“Probably most of the cabinet drinks alcohol, the most dangerous drug of all,” he said, adding that he believed perhaps half of the cabinet had used cannabis recreationally.

Likewise Diane Abbott, the home affairs spokeswoman for Labour, the main opposition party, recalled comments by a former chairman of the government’s advisory committee on the misuse of drugs who argued that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal products.

But that advice was not popular among British politicians when it was proffered in 2009. The adviser, Prof. David Nutt, resigned soon afterward.

The post Stung by a Boy’s Suffering, U.K. Reviews Medical Marijuana Rules appeared first on World The News.

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LONDON | UK changes course, allows epileptic boy to use cannabis oil

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LONDON | UK changes course, allows epileptic boy to use cannabis oil

LONDON (AP) — The British government changed course Saturday in a case concerning cannabis oil, saying an epileptic boy can be treated with it after his mother said he needed it to survive severe seizures.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he has agreed to urgently issue a license to allow Billy Caldwell, a 12-year-old from Northern Ireland, to be treated with the oil. He said his decision was based on advice from senior doctors who say that Caldwell, who was hospitalized overnight in London, faces a medical emergency.

Javid said the British government’s immediate priority was to make sure Caldwell receives “the most effective treatment possible in a safe way.”

The case has revived the debate over medical marijuana use in Britain.

Cannabis oil is banned in Britain. Border Force agents seized it from Charlotte Caldwell, the boy’s mother, when she tried to bring it into London’s Heathrow Airport on Monday from Canada, where she obtained it legally.

She said Billy suffered two severe seizures overnight and that the cannabis oil is the only substance that can prevent life-threatening seizures for him. He began the treatment in the United States legally two years ago.

Charlotte Caldwell says the oil has kept Billy seizure-free for more than 300 days.

He became the first person in the U.K. with a prescription for cannabis oil when it was recommended to him by a local doctor in Northern Ireland. But the doctor stopped prescribing cannabis oil after being warned by the Home Office.

After the government agreed to permit the treatment, Charlotte Caldwell said Saturday that she and her supporters had “achieved the impossible” and called for a rules change to allow other children needing cannabis oil to use it legally.

“I truly believe that somewhere in the Home Office there’s someone with a heart and I truly believe that Billy was pulling on their heart strings,” she said.

Nonetheless, she said the British government had put her and Billy through a “dreadful, horrific, cruel experience” that has left him in a gravely weakened state.

Cannabis oil is not recognized in the U.K. as being effective for the treatment of epilepsy. The National Health Service says on its website that cannabis-based products are being tested for possible use in treatment of several diseases, including epilepsy in children, glaucoma and the loss of appetite experienced by some people with AIDS or HIV infections.

By GREGORY KATZ , By Associated Press

[blockheadbrands]

Severely Epileptic Boy Discharged From Hospital After Resuming CBD Treatment

A.J. Herrington of High Times Reports:

12-year-old Billy Caldwell, who was admitted to the hospital after his CBD oil was confiscated, is now reportedly on the mend and back on his medication.

Billy Caldwell has been discharged from the hospital after resuming treatment with medicinal cannabis oil. The U.K. boy made international headlines after border officials confiscated his medicine at Heathrow Airport last week. The main active ingredient of the medication is CBD, but it also has enough THC to make it a Schedule 1 controlled substance.

Charlotte Caldwell, Billy’s mother, told the BBC that the improvement in the boy’s condition proves the medicine works. But she also said that the government should change its policy in order to help other sick children.

“The fact that Billy has been discharged is testimony to the effectiveness of the treatment and underlines how vital it is that every child and every single family affected in our country should have immediate access to the very same medication,” she said.

Billy began taking the medicine Tilray in the United States in 2016. Then last year, Billy became the first U.K. patient to receive a prescription for a medical marijuana treatment. But last month, the government announced that those prescriptions would end. So with one dose of the medication remaining, Billy and Charlotte flew to Canada for help. The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto replenished Billy’s medicine, and the pair returned home. They were met by border officials when they arrived at Heathrow Airport on June 11, and Billy’s medication was confiscated.

Within hours of the first missed dose, Billy had his first epileptic seizure in months. After suffering a series of several more seizures, paramedics rushed Billy to the hospital on June 15.

Government Returned Medicine Saturday

At first, the U.K. government said that it would not return Billy’s medicine. Instead, the Home Office suggested the Caldwells seek a license for the medicine from the government of Northern Ireland, where they live. But with the boy’s condition worsening, Home Secretary Sajid Javid relented and issued a 20-day temporary license for the medication.

Afterward, Charlotte told reporters that compassion had won out over bureaucracy.

“I truly believe that somewhere in the Home Office there’s someone with a heart, and I truly believe that Billy was pulling on their heartstrings,” she said.

Charlotte also said that others should be spared what she and Billy have had to endure.

“No other family should have to go through this sort of ordeal, traveling halfway round the world to get medication which should be freely available,” she said. “Children are dying in our country and it needs to stop now.”

By Monday, Billy was well enough to leave the hospital. After the boy’s release, Charlotte said it was time for healthcare professionals, not politicians, to quickly decide the issue.

“I will demand that the health department, not the Home Office, takes responsibility for providing access to medication for these incredibly sick children—this meeting must take place within 24 hours,” she said. “Children in our country are dying and suffering beyond imagination.”

MP Sir Mike Penning is leading a parliamentary group studying medical marijuana. He agrees that decisions should be made by doctors, and said that Britain’s current laws are “bizarre and cruel.”

“Medical cannabis is a health issue, not a misuse of drugs issue,” Penning said. “It’s about patients and relieving suffering.”

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON HIGH TIMES, CLICK HERE.

https://hightimes.com/news/severely-epileptic-boy-discharged-from-hospital-after-resuming-cbd-treatment/