EQUALITY ACT (2010): How disability is defined.
Government Equalities Office: Guidance
Disability: Equality Act 2010 - Guidance on matters to be taken into account in determining questions relating to the definition of disability (HTML) (Mar 2013 update)
Here is the UK official definition of a disability, which would likely be relevant to most people prescribed cannabis. You are also being discriminated against in this context if you are being treated less favourably than someone prescribed something without the stigma and judgement attached:
“The Act generally defines a disabled person as a person with a disability. A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. “
EQUALITY ACT (2010)
I’ve outlined protected characteristics and definition of disability, but entrenched historical beliefs and lack of legal awareness mean that most patients have suffered discrimination at some point and there are numerous reasons why they feel unable to address it at the time, even if they know their rights. If you wouldn’t get sent outside using another medication you shouldn’t with cannabis, but I understand that in less spacious or poorly ventilated areas, it may not be that simple. The ‘passive’ issue is believed to be basically, nil, (you can read more about this in the Guidance Section, ‘Use in public buildings’, studies) but even if it must be outside, surely a place away from passive smoke isn’t too much to ask. One thing I’ve learned since I became a wheelchair user is that can’t accommodate and won’t accommodate are not the same thing but to put prescription holders with smokers strongly suggests to me that wilfully or otherwise, it’s being treated as comparable to a nicotine vaporizer. Understandable given the same term is used (though the device is different) for cannabis delivery devices, rather than other medicines, hence entirely the wrong policies are being applied. In my view, incredibly loud conversations are no less anti-social (than it’s perceived as), but again, they seem commonplace and unchallenged. Even as a wheelchair user, I try to go outside when I can (even though I’m told regularly by others and staff that I don’t need to), because I’m aware that people don’t always want to be around it. But there’s too much skirting around the conversation of how much of these issues are based on residual stigma I think, and patients and recreational consumers will continue to suffer until this changes.