Medical cannabis was made legal 5 years ago, but even after half a decade, you still can only access it via private doctors costing hundreds of pounds a month. Not via your GP or on the NHS.
Not only do people have to pay the cost of the medication privately if they want it, but they have to pay quarterly appointment fees and repeat prescription fees on top of the actual medication cost.
The UK sadly is pretty archaic for many things, and healthcare is one of them. It is bad enough that it is a postcode lottery to get regular healthcare on the NHS, but people like myself, who have tried everything available on the NHS for their condition (such as my chronic pain), and there is nothing else to try, yet we will can’t get cannabis on the NHS even when it is the last available option.
There have been more clinics that have opened up and more products available which is great although most is still irradiated cannabis. There is a wider range and more choice of price now, although it is still pretty expensive with all fees included.
NICE is the company that decides what will and what won’t be on the NHS and they used lies and excuses to say that it can’t be prescribed for pain on the NHS due to “not enough evidence it works” and “the cost”, even though there were lots of trials showing it does work, they don’t read other research as they didn’t run the trial, yet they didn’t bother to every start a clinical trial. Not once as yet.
And as for the cost, for many it would be cheaper to prescribe medical cannabis.
I would 100% be cheaper to treat with cannabis on the NHS than what is happening right now, but they don’t look at each person, they use blanket statements as though we are all the same which is ridiculous.
I get Fentanyl, Morphine, Amitriptyline and many other medications, some of which are just for the side effects, plus I have to speak to my GP every 3 weeks as I use the Fentanyl more than you are supposed to. All of this has a cost on the NHS.
The cost to them of the GP appointments and all the medication would cost more for them, than prescribing me cannabis flower and oil. But the blanket statement means I can’t get cannabis for pain on the NHS as no one can for chronic pain. That is their rule.
Cannabis works very well for my pain, but I can’t afford it privately as I can’t afford to live as it is, and I can’t get it on the NHS for chronic pain, even though I have tried literally everything available on the NHS for over 10 years, and nothing works as well as cannabis.
Fentanyl is the only thing on the NHS that helps a bit and stops me being bedbound, but I have SEVERE side effects and withdrawals. Withdrawals every 2 days for hours and hours.
I could come off opioids for cannabis, but they NHS prefer me to have opioids because of NICE rules. Absolutely ridiculous and cruel.
I had tried everything over a decade on the NHS, everything from the most basic painkiller, to physio many times over the years which it actually made it worse, to all the medications used off label for pain, but nothing worked.
The only thing that helps my pain a little on the NHS is Fentanyl, but I have been on it so long that my withdrawals as really bad every 38 hours for about 16 hours of severe withdrawals every 2 days. Yes you read that right.
I have to use the Fentanyl patches every 48 hours instead of 76 hours purely because of withdrawals. I use it more than you should, so I have to speak to my GP every 3 weeks and have for over 5 years, purely because I shouldn’t use it like that and all other doctors want me off it, but my GP realises I would die. Yes die, as the pain is so extreme.
I was bedbound before the Fentanyl and would scream and cry night and day, unable to sleep, unable to get comfy, unable to get into a position that reduced pain or stopped me being in pain so bad I wanted to die.
I love life, well being alive I should say as life is hard! And I don’t want to die. I used to want to live forever! But when the painkillers don’t work, the pain is so bad you don’t want to be alive. And that is weird for me because as I said, I used to want to live forever!
If I could just get cannabis on the NHS, I would have reduced pain on a constant level. If I could have flower and oil, I would balance the pain all day long. Even when I managed to get a few months of medical cannabis years ago now, I couldn’t afford the oil so just had the flower, so the effects would run out after a while which is why I should have had oil too so it was always in my system. The doctor prescribed both but I couldn’t afford both, only 1.
I didn’t get long on medical cannabis as I couldn’t afford it so had to go back to Fentanyl, Morphine and the other medications, even though cannabis lets me stop morphine and if I had the oil as well, I could come off the Fentanyl.
