Accessing a
Private Prescription:

Clinics, Pharmacies and more...

The following section contains resources for adult prescription access

For children and young people, please click the link here: Resources for parents

CLINICS


Although I've had a prescription for a few years now, the system has evolved in many ways I don't pretend to understand. At time of writing this, December 2024, there are, according to Medbudwiki, 48 cannabis-prescribing clinics, all with slightly different procedures, pricing systems and low income schemes available (Project Twenty21 from DrugScience has now ended, unfortunately). They may also offer different specialties. I'd say Medbudwiki, another patient-led site, remains the best resource for keeping up to speed, not just for clinics, but pharmacies and stock levels. I must confess, I use it less than I'd like, because I find it too hard to understand that much information on one screen, but I don't know how you get round that. It can't guarantee 100% accuracy, but it's a very useful tool. Not always, but usually, you will be expected to have tried two treatments (not necessarily pharmaceutical), before you will be prescribed cannabis.

A last note on clinics is they have differing stances on cannabis from a legal standpoint, by which I mean some support full legalisation, others have been critical of perceived ‘recreational’ applicants. This may not influence your decision as to who you go with, but I thought it worth a mention, as it definitely would mine. Apart from my firm belief that all cannabis use is medicinal anyway, I'd like a doctor to at least pretend they don't view me as some kind of deviant. Personal judgement of that nature really isn't their job in my view.

Click Medbudwiki link below for clinic listings:
https://medbud.wiki/clinics/

PHARMACIES

There are now lots of pharmacies too and again, it's a different system and delivery times for each. You can pick your pharmacy but they may not hold stock of what you want. Ask your doctors and clinics for help and support if you do go forward. It's what they're there for and it can be a complicated system to navigate. Click the link for pharmacy listings:
https://medbud.wiki/pharmacies/

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT PRODUCTS PRESCRIBED

This myth comes up a lot. Often people say to me that they thought that prescribed cannabis was somehow different, all with reduced or no THC in it. This isn't true. There's a massive spectrum of THC levels, from CBD only to very high in THC, in an array of strains and terpene profiles. But it's essentially the same. The same as you'd grow, the same as you'd buy elsewhere. If you are prescribed flower (weed/ bud), you'll need a vaporizer as smoking it remains illegal, as your prescription will specify. Some are very expensive but I use the lower end budget ones and they're okay. There are also edible products and oils.

PatientsCann have also produced a helpful guide on what to expect from the process, which you can read using the link below:
https://patientscann.org.uk/start-your-journey/

FINAL THOUGHTS

It's not a cheap system and it's a complicated system, but for now, it's the only one we have available. And if it helps you enough and you're in a position to, it can make so many health issues far more manageable and it's well worth it. I'm just sorry for those who suffer in the meantime.

RESOURCES for the PARENTS
OF SICK CHILDREN

Although I've been campaigning for a while now, so have a better idea than most about what cannabis products are available, both privately and on the NHS, I realised that it was a parent with a sick child, interested in a prescription, I wouldn't have a clue where to look, so I've put together this section to offer some guidance there too. It's really quite a difference to the adult population in a couple of ways. One is that like the limited demographic who qualify for sativex on the NHS, children with severe epilepsy might qualify for Epidiolex [1][2][3]. 

But to clarify, this is Cannabidiol only. It doesn't contain Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which some children (and adults), including the handful like Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, who have been prescribed oil containing THC on the NHS. And because that's not being given to anyone else, it seems, parents are driven to the private prescription system. Which leads on to another, extremely sad and totally unacceptable difference to adults. Apart from the high expense of large quantities of oil required to treat conditions like treatment resistant epilepsy, as the number of clinics prescribing to adults is now in the dozens, I'm told by a parent campaigner that there are currently no prescribers for new child or young adult patients, and that the best course of action would be to contact Curaleaf Clinic to go onto the waiting list.

There tends to be some crossover between adult and child access campaigns in that the focus is different, but all are ultimately aiming for the same thing, which is NHS access to cannabis for all who qualify. End Our Pain [4] is one such campaign, led by parents with children dependent on private prescriptions. Intractable Epilepsy Charity [5] exists with advice and possible financial prescription assistance and Iambilly [6] is run by Billy Caldwell's tireless mother, Charlotte, and well worth keeping tabs on.

You can read my January 2024 article ‘Cannabis and Treatment Epilepsy: How Long Must Our Children Suffer?’ to learn more about issues facing the parents of sick children by clicking this link: https://alipinkandgreen.com/My_Articles_and_Updates.html

References

NHS England (2019, December 21). NHS England » NHS to fast-track access to cannabis-based medicine for children with severe epilepsy. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/12/nhs-to-fast-track-access-to-cannabis-based-medicine-for-children-with-severe-epilepsy/ [Accessed January 2025]

NICE. (2019, December 18). 2 Information about cannabidiol | Cannabidiol with clobazam for treating seizures associated with Lennox–Gastaut syndrome | Guidance | NICE. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta615/chapter/2-Information-about-cannabidiol [Accessed January 2025]

NICE recommends first cannabis-based medicines for use on the NHS - The Pharmaceutical Journal. (2021, February 12). The Pharmaceutical Journal. https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/news/nice-recommends-first-cannabis-based-medicines-for-use-on-the-nhs [Accessed January 2025]

End Our Pain. (2023, October 16). Email your MP - End our pain. https://endourpain.org/ [Accessed January 2025]

Intractable Epilepsy Charity, Intractable Charity, Epilepsy Charity, Intractable Epilepsy, Medicinal Cannabis, CBD oil. (n.d.). Intractable Epilepsy. https://www.intractable.org.uk/ [Accessed January 2025]

I AM Billy. (2024, August 9). I AM home - I am Billy. I Am Billy. https://iambilly.uk/ [Accessed January 2025]


Further Reading

British Paediatric Neurology Association. (2018). Guidance on the use of cannabis‐based products for medicinal use in children and young people with epilepsy. https://bpna.org.uk/userfiles/BPNA_CBPM_Guidance_Oct2018.pdf [Accessed January 2025]

Harrop, S. (2021, November 3). 10 years in the making: drug discovered by Reading scientists reaches UK children with severe epilepsy. Connecting Research. https://research.reading.ac.uk/research-blog/2019/11/11/10-years-in-the-making-drug-discovered-by-reading-scientists-reaches-uk-children-with-severe-epilepsy/ [Accessed January 2025]

Ledger, E. (2023, September 12). Can medical cannabis be prescribed to children in the UK? - leafie. Leafie. https://www.leafie.co.uk/articles/medical-cannabis-children-uk/ [Accessed January 2025]

Medicinal cannabis for children and young people - briefing (updated February 2020). (n.d.). RCPCH. https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/medicinal-cannabis-children-young-people-briefing [Accessed January 2025]

Raleigh, N. (2023, February 1). NICE recommends cannabinoid med for severe epilepsy. Pharmaphorum. https://pharmaphorum.com/news/nice-recommends-cannabinoid-med-severe-epilepsy [Accessed January 2025]

Sinclair, S. (2024, October 16). UK Launches 2 Clinical Trials into Cannabis and Childhood Epilepsy, But Serious Concerns Raised Over its Structure. Business of Cannabis. https://businessofcannabis.com/uk-launches-2-clinical-trials-into-cannabis-and-childhood-epilepsy-but-serious-concerns-raised-over-its-structure/ [Accessed January 2025]

To contact Curaleaf Clinic: enquiries@curaleafclinic.com

Page updated January 2025