Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Minister for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice on 20 January 2016, Official Report, column 1479, what progress her Department has made on the use of cannabis for the purposes of medicinal research.

Access to controlled drugs for legitimate medicinal (or exceptionally for industrial purposes) is permitted through the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.

There is a clear regime in place, administered by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to enable medicines (including those containing controlled drugs such as cannabis) to be developed, licensed and made available for medicinal use to patients in the UK. For example, the cannabis-based medicine ‘sativex’ has been granted Marketing Authorisation in the UK by the MHRA for the treatment of spasticity due to multiple sclerosis. Sativex was rigorously tested for its safety and efficacy before receiving approval for this application.

The MHRA is open to considering marketing approval applications for other medicinal cannabis products should a product be developed. As happened in the case of sativex, the Home Office will consider issuing a licence to enable trials of any new medicine providing it complies with appropriate ethical approvals.