Parent support charity MedCan, which campaigns for wider access to medical cannabis, has attempted to quantify how many UK parents are accessing the medicines illegally online.
After conducting a review of three online forums and interviewing parents, it has counted 382 families involved – which campaigners suggest is the tip of the iceberg.
Elaine Gennard, from Hertfordshire, flew to Amsterdam six times last year to buy full-spectrum cannabis oil for her daughter Fallon. She has a legal prescription with a doctor in the Netherlands, but bringing it back to the UK without a licence is illegal.
Elaine says it is worth the risk as, even after her travel expenses, the cost of the oil is half the price she would pay in the UK.
She says the medication has saved the life of Fallon, 30, who is also living with treatment-resistant epilepsy, reducing her seizures from 200 per month to about eight.
“Anyone who has a child like my daughter – that could potentially die from these seizures – as a mother you go to any length for her,” says Elaine.
Smuggling the medicines into the UK amounts to international drug trafficking, says solicitor Robert Jappie, one of the country’s leading legal experts in the medical cannabis sector. Importation of a Class B drug has “fairly hefty” prison sentences, he says.
“In practice, it seems very, very, unlikely anyone would be prosecuted – but it’s not a risk that these families should be taking,” he adds. “They should be able to access this medication safely here in the UK.”
The is not aware of any families who have been prosecuted.
