At a glance
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Medical whole cannabis was legalised in 2018 after a campaign to make it available to children with severe epilepsy
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Private clinics are seeing a rise in patients, but the drug has only been prescribed to a handful of people on the NHS
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Campaigners are calling for it to be more widely available to give patients more treatment options
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But the government says more evidence of the drug’s benefits is needed
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Private cannabis clinics are seeing a rise in patients as people choose the drug to treat chronic pain and mental health conditions.
One medical cannabis clinic in Westminster, Mamedica, said it had seen the number of patients increase by more than 10 times in 2023, rising from 250 to 2,750.
CEO Jon Robson said this was down to a “large number of patients who are transitioning to us not just from the illicit market, but because they haven’t found the treatments that the NHS can provide to be sufficient for their conditions”.
The majority of patients at the clinic take medical cannabis for psychiatric conditions, such as anxiety and depression, with 40% taking the drug to treat chronic pain.
