Hello everyone (???),
I recently moved from Australia to UK, and in that process I had to speak to my doctors back in Australia for my medication to be documented for UK GP’s. The normal stuff like, Valium, codeine and strong anti-inflammatories were pretty easy to switch over, but the THC side is where I’m finding roadblocks and don’t know where to go, or even if I can.
I have been prescribed Spectrum Red THC oil, and thankfully I have enough of it to last another year or so, but there will be a time when I have to jump on the doctor bandwagon to get it refilled. Do GP’s prescribe it in the UK like I would in Australia, or do I have to go down a long path of finding the right doctors practice that will be able to prescribe THC oil?
Thankfully I have a great doctor who will electronically prescribe oil to be filled at a dispensary in Australia, who might be able to mail it to me, but I don’t quite like the prospect of paying £70 and hoping a bottle arrives… and then having to possibly deal with border control for importing something that might be illegal.
Does anyone know of a cannabis doctor in the UK that would prescribe that particular medication, or at least have any personal experience with any insight on how it works here?
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I don’t know the current situation in Australia but it sounds radically different to the UK.
The short answer is no, and since there is a lot of political pressure against any form of reform there is also the risk that bringing it in from Australia is probably also illegal.
Not illegal. Permission from home office states no more than 3 months supply is allowed for any internationally prescribed medication.
Seems the list of health conditions to get it prescribed is pretty short. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/medical-cannabis/
CBD oil is freely available, can’t comment on effectiveness though.
Thanks for the link. I’ll have a read of it today and see if anything correlates.
I found CBD to not have any strong effect. It was incredibly expensive for a very minor gain. From my perspective, it did have some anti-inflammatory abilities, but a month supply I n Australia was about £200, and I found that if I did some tailored stretches, breathing exercises and dynamic movement, I could alleviate my discomfort enough to get on with my day.
Edit: upon reading that link, I have to say that the UK is miles behind Australia on medical cannabis, as the scope of being prescribed THC is so particular, and seemingly only available through specialist hospitals.
I guess it’s go down the path of returning to Australia to get my supply and bringing it back into the UK on me. At least until the laws open up a little for people with chronic pain.
I guess it’s go down the path of returning to Australia to get my supply and bringing it back into the UK on me.
I’d check the law on that one because I’d imagine it would be pretty much illegal without some serious paperwork (parents of epileptic children had a real fight a while ago) and if you get caught they’d send you back to Oz with a high bar for re-entry.
I have advice from drug and firearm in the home office that as long as I don’t have more than 3 months worth of medication, I’m free to bring it in to the country. I’m both a citizen of UK and Australia so deporting me will be a tennis match.
It just so happens that the amount that is prescribed to me as a single dose so happens to be 15 times my actual dose, so the 40mL dosage technically should last 35 days, but in reality it lasts 400.
I have advice from drug and firearm in the home office that as long as I don’t have more than 3 months worth of medication, I’m free to bring it in to the country. I’m both a citizen of UK and Australia so deporting me will be a tennis match.
That’s good to hear - I knew the parents of epileptic children had opened things up but it’s definitely a good idea to have got this in writing (and perhaps laminate it and carry it with you in case Customs didn’t get the memo).
I’m glad they’ve made it more manageable for MS, epilepsy and chemo pain, but there really is a stronger push needed to get this moving. I have never enjoyed marijuana recreationally, and was very dubious of the prescription… but thankfully with THC, I don’t want to eat the end of a shotgun when I’m on the floor doubled over in sciatic pain.
Probably easier just to pick up some green on the street?
That seems unwise.
If you know a guy who knows a guy, you can probably get cannabis oil - a friend was getting chemo and radiotherapy, so reached out (via a work colleague) to see what he could get and I think he found a source but decided against it as it would have ruled out driving.
However, that’s still a bit shady. OP’s best bet is to contact UK-based medical cannabis groups and see if they know someone who could sort them out. They should be able to provide all the relevant information about where the land lies in regards to the law.
https://www.sapphireclinics.com/
Try Sapphire Clinics. They’re not on the NHS so you’ll need to pay but if you follow their process they’ll try to get the prescription you need.
I have a mate who has a prescription and he gets flower shake to his door.
In the UK, the NHS will not prescribe cannabis except for a very small number of rare conditions. Ordinarily you need to go to a private clinic to get a prescription.
Regarding the law, you need “lawful authority” to posess cannabis. Since cannabis was rescheduled in 2018, that lawful authority can be a prescription from a doctor. The only issue I can see is that an Australia doctor may not be considered a doctor without a UK license and hence your Australian prescription may not constitute lawful authority to posess cannabis.
This will be a general issue with all prescribed medicines though, it’s not specific to cannabis. You might want to do some web searching to find out whether Australian prescriptions for controlled substances are valid in the UK. You could talk to an Australian consulate too.
The authorities here haven’t caught up with the legality of cannabis medicines so it’s entirely possible you’ll face shit here just the same as UK patients. You might well find things being confiscated by ignorant Little Hitlers. However, I’d guess the Crown Prosecution Service are highly unlikely to try and prosecute someone with a prescription from an Australian doctor.
Thank you for your thorough response… It’s a shame that the UK hasn’t had a better adoption of alternative medicines, but I realise that is the case and it is what it is. Thankfully for me, I’m a dual citizen, with a legal prescription in Australia, so I can always get the prescription filled over there, and bring it back into the UK on my Australian passport as long as it’s under what is considered three months supply. The below is a transcript I received from the Drug Import/Export Case Owner & Licensing Manager
—————— ——————
Thank you for your email.
You can bring up to 3 months supply of this medication (as it contains a controlled drug) if it is accompanied by a letter from the prescribing clinician stating the patient, medication prescribed, dosage, quantity carried and that it does not exceed 3 month’s worth of medication.
Kind regards
——————— ———————
Now, if my doctor says that my dosage is 1.5mL a day, that equates to 135mL that I’m allowed to bring into the UK with an accompanied doctors note. If a bottle of THC is 40mL, I can bring in 3 bottles. hypothetically, if my dosage is more like 0.1mL, then that’s about 1200 doses, or 3.2 years worth of daily medication.
