Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an impact assessment of the regulations prohibiting regulated manufacture of medical cannabis and CBD products on patient safety.

The manufacture of cannabis-based medicines is allowed under the appropriate Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and Home Office licences. Cannabis-based medicines must comply with all applicable requirements and high standards of manufacture that apply to all other medicines to ensure patient safety.

In 2018, the Government amended the law to allow specialist doctors to prescribe unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use, where clinically appropriate, with an accompanying impact assessment published by the Home Office. The Government must consider advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) before making any further amendments to the law in this area. At the request of the Home Office, the ACMD have recently reviewed this legislation and concluded that no amendments are currently required.

Cannabidiol (CBD) in its pure form is not a controlled drug. However, many consumer CBD products also contain varying amounts of controlled cannabinoids due to difficulties in isolating pure CBD. The Home Office has sought the ACMD’s advice on a legal framework exempting CBD products with a defined trace percentage of controlled cannabinoids from control under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The ACMD responded on December 17 2021 and the Government is currently considering this advice.