There appears to be a serious mixed reactions regarding the
attempt by the United Kingdom to make the usage of cannabis lawful.
Starting this year 2017, any product which has contents of
cannabis-based ingredients also known as cannabidiol (CBD) would be classified
as medicines by the regulatory authority in charge of UK medicines.
So far, the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory
Agency (MHRA) said it had looked at CBD because a lot of manufacturing
companies had been making "overt medicinal claims" about products.
According to Gerald Heddel, director of inspection and
enforcement at the agency, while speaking with Sky News said: "The change
really came about with us offering an opinion that CBD is in fact a medicine,
and that opinion was based on the fact that we noted that people were making
some quite stark claims about serious diseases that could be treated with
CBD."
Speaking further, he said that an appraisal of the confirmation
showed that "it was clear that people are using this product with the
understandable belief that it will actually help".
Investigation reveals that cannabis has two key ingredients
- THC and CBD. The THC gets you stoned, and it can also make you anxious and
psychotic.
On the other hand, isolated, CBD has the opposite effect,
often calming people down - which is why some people are using it in small
doses as medicine.
It has been revealed that a lot of person in Britain usually
get the substance supplied to them online, in a free-for-all and possibly
unsafe market, however, the resolve of the MHRA means that manufacturers will
henceforth need to show their CBD products meet safety, quality and
effectiveness standards.
Though some people who make use of CBDs are happy that at
last the substance is being recognised as every other medicine, others are
troubled about their supply.
Below are some examples of people who have benefited from
CBD:
Louise Bostock's daughter Jayla has brain damage. Aged five,
she cannot walk or talk and is unlikely to live beyond her childhood.
Ms Bostock turned to CBD to ease her daughter's symptoms
after reading about studies in the US, where fits in children were cut by 50%.
During her interview with Sky News, said, Jayla no longer
visit hospital every three or four weeks, as was the case.
As CBDs are currently normally only prescribed to adults
with multiple sclerosis, authorities stepped in, which Ms Bostock feels was due
to a lack of understanding about CBDs.
She said: "They try and criminalise it if you even
mention cannabis, but when you are dealing with people who are going to die,
how can anyone not give it to these people who have no hope?"
though there are serious concerns that the move could send
mixed messages about the safety and legality of cannabis.
Dr Hamed Khan, medical lecturer at St George's University
Hospital, stressed the ruling "is only about CBDs, which is something very
specific, and not cannabis and marijuana as a whole".
Cannabis is not recognised in the UK as having any
therapeutic value, and anyone using it could be charged with possession.
Campaigners for its legalisation say classifying CBDs as a
medicine opens up the medicinal marijuana debate.
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