Hypocrisy? Medicinal cannabis legal in UK since 2018 in $1.2B industry - OTs battle for industry while UK benefiting from billion dollar export sector

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI– While some British Overseas Territories (OTs) like the [British] Virgin Islands and Bermuda have been blocked by the United Kingdom (UK) from setting up their medical marijuana industry, medicinal marijuana has been legal in the UK since 2018.

Data from Commercial Dehydrators, an equipment supplier in the industry, suggests that the UK’s medicinal cannabis industry is expected to be worth US$1.2 billion by 2024.

Treatment for patients with rare illness

While medicinal cannabis in the UK is only legal for patients with rare illnesses, the UK is also one of the world’s biggest cultivators of medicinal cannabis only for the export market.

UK doctors, in 2018, were given the option to legally issue prescriptions for cannabis-based medicines when they agree that their patients could benefit from this treatment.

The law was laid in parliament after the then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, listened to concerns from parents of children with conditions such as severe epilepsy.

The UK law does not limit the types of conditions that can be considered for treatment and doctors also do not need to seek approval from an expert panel in order for patients to access the medicines.