A medical cannabis card was launched in the UK today, making it easy for patients carrying the drug to prove they’re not breaking the law.
The card, the size of a driver’s license or debit card, features the patient’s name, photo, date of birth, and address.
It also includes a QR code, which can be scanned to instantly show that they have a legal prescription.
The card is provided by Releaf, a cannabis prescription website, which says customers can show the card to police officers who question their use of the drug.
The launch will take place on April 20, an international day to celebrate cannabis, when enthusiasts of the drug descend on parks around the world to light up.
The Medical Cannabis Card shows a patient’s name, a photo and a QR code that can be scanned to prove they have a prescription
The card is provided by Releaf, a cannabis prescription website (pictured), which says customers can show the card to police officers who question their use of the drug
The Nottingham-based company says its card will give patients the confidence to take their medication ‘whenever and wherever they want’
It is currently illegal to possess, grow, distribute or sell cannabis in the UK.
Police can issue a fine of £90 on the spot for carrying the class B drug. It can also come with one up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.
Sanctions depend on the amount of the drug, where it was found, criminal history, and other aggravating or mitigating factors.
However, some patients have legal access to cannabis through the NHS after medical use was made legal in the UK following a landmark review in 2018.
This includes patients with severe epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, as well as adults suffering from chemotherapy-related vomiting or nausea.
Only specialist hospital doctors can prescribe it and even then it is only given out as a last resort when all other treatments have failed.
NHS doctors remain reluctant to prescribe it due to a lack of strong evidence that it helps patients of most diseases.
Private prescriptions, which can cost hundreds of dollars each month, are becoming more common.
Doctors who are registered in the specialist register of the General Medical Council can legally prescribe cannabis-based products. Health chiefs warn they should follow the NHS’s narrow approach and only offer the drug to a few patients.
Those who have received cannabis medication from a doctor can already prove that they have a prescription by keeping the medication in its original packaging, a copy of the prescription and a letter from the doctor who prescribed it.
Patients may also need to present their ID, such as a passport or driver’s license, that matches the information on the other documents.
But Releaf says the new card contains all this information, including what’s prescribed, the patient’s condition and the doctor who prescribed it, which is “what police require” to verify legitimate cannabis use.
It shows the patient’s full name, address, photo and QR code, which provides police with “all the information they need” to verify that someone is a registered cannabis patient.
The map also includes a 24-hour helpline that the police can call.
The Nottingham-based company says the card will give patients the confidence to take their medication ‘whenever and wherever they want’.
Releaf customers can access the card when they take out a subscription to the website, which starts from £3.25 a day for 20g and is valid for the duration of the prescription.
They can only do this after meeting the criteria to get the drug and after being reviewed by a doctor through an online or phone appointment.
According to a survey of 4,200 Britons, only four in ten Britons know that medical cannabis is legal in the UK.
And a quarter would delay taking the prescription drug away from home, while a third worry about being mistaken for doing something illegal, it found.
Greg de Hoet, a 35-year-old medical cannabis patient, is prescribed cannabis to treat the symptoms of Crohn’s disease.
He said: ‘Until now I have been afraid that I would not get into the football stadium or music concert. I have tickets to see and have my medication taken from me due to lack of understanding.
“This will really help reduce the stigma and will hopefully empower others whose quality of life can really be improved by using medicinal cannabis to talk to their doctor about it.”
Dr. Stephen D’Souza, clinical director of Releaf, said: ‘This card will ultimately give those who really need medical cannabis the confidence and freedom to take their prescription medication when they need it, free from stigma.’
It comes as former Scottish Secretary David Mundell today urged ministers to support the cannabis sector, the ‘industry of the future’.
While not “advancing the legalization of recreational use,” he wants to draw attention to “the opportunities arising from the cultivation and production of medicinal cannabis-related products.”
The MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale said: ‘I have the development of a large medical cannabis facility in my constituency.
“It’s called Hilltop Leaf and I wanted to emphasize that this is a huge industry, a growing industry, an industry of the future because medical cannabis is not only legal here in the UK.
“It’s legal in many parts of the world and it’s a great opportunity for the UK to be at the forefront of this industry.
“Unfortunately, we just make it very difficult.”
While the health benefits are increasingly used in British medicine, there are concerns about their recreational use among young people and the impact they have on mental health.
Ian Hamilton, an addiction expert from the University of York, told MailOnline that the increasing potency of cannabis has increased the risk for some users.
Those with mental illnesses such as psychosis may see their symptoms worsen with frequent use of “potent cannabis,” he warned.
Young people may fall into the trap of thinking cannabis is relatively harmless because it is being promoted for its health properties, without realizing that the dose used in medicine is significantly lower, Mr Hamilton said.
He said: ‘Many people believe that cannabis is not addictive, but research suggests that one in ten of those who regularly use the drug will develop a dependence.
Some of these risks and disadvantages could be addressed if the drug were decriminalized and regulated.
“For example, there would be an opportunity to perform quality control on the legally sold cannabis instead of leaving it to the black market.”
But Mr Hamilton noted that both the Conservatives and Labor have ruled out decriminalisation.
Only the Liberal Democrats have made clear their ambition to decriminalize cannabis, so policies would probably only change if they were included in a coalition government,” he added.