CAMPAIGNERS for medicinal cannabis are to meet with Scottish Government officials in what could be the first step towards regulation of the drug.
Activists from Medicinal Cannabis Reform Scotland are to meet with senior officers from Police Scotland, representatives of public health Minister Joe Fitzpatrick, and the NHS in Holyrood later this month.
The campaigners are looking for support for the decriminalisation of the drug.
Bernadette McCreadie, who suffers from multiple immune diseases and central nervous system diseases, says cannabis is her only option for pain relief.
She told The National that change made sense if you wanted to treat drug use as a health issue rather than as a criminal justice issue.
“Obviously we don’t have drug policy control here in Scotland , Theresa May holds that down in England and that woman is not parting with that.”
“We’re going to have to find a way around that,” she added. “We want the right to decide whether we grow our own cannabis or whether we go to a cannabis club and get it from a natural grower of cannabis or whether we get it through a pharmaceutical route.”
The campaigners will push for Scottish ministers and police to look at the possibility of decriminalisation of home-growing, or allowing so-called cannabis social clubs to operate in Scotland without fear of prosecution.
The clubs already exist in England and Wales, and they allow members to bring and smoke, or consume their own cannabis, but supplying or dealing the class B drug is actually strictly prohibited.
North Wales police and crime commissioner Arfon Jones recently threw his support behind a clubs. “Why shouldn’t consenting adults be able to use cannabis recreationally and without causing anyone any harm?” he asked.
McCreadie said: “We need the help of the authorities. And they’re starting to show the sign that they want to help us,”
“At the end of the day they’re coming to have the conversation and that’s all I can ask for at this stage,” she added.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We welcome the announcement that from this autumn doctors will be allowed to prescribe cannabis derived medicinal products.
“Work is currently underway to look at which medical conditions it is appropriate for and to develop clinical guidelines to support doctors to make sure that the products prescribed to patients are safe, including for children.”
Doctors will be able to prescribe medicinal cannabis for the first time in the UK in the autumn, following Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to relax the rules around the drug.
That followed a number of high profile cases including that of Alfie Dingley, Billy Caldwell and Murray Gray from Edinburgh.
However, the products available are of highly variable quality.
The UK government has close links to the burgeoning cannabis industry.
British Sugar grows cannabis under a licence from the Home Office, which they sell to GW Pharmaceuticals to make its new CBD based medicine, Epidiolex. The managing director of British Sugar is Paul Kenward, husband of the Home Office minister with responsibility for drugs Victoria Atkins.
Since this was widely publicised she has stopped herself from addressing issues related to cannabis.
Philip May, the Prime Minister’s husband, is a relationship manager at Capital Group, who through Mentor Capital, are the largest shareholder in GW Pharmaceuticals, with a holding worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
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