UK Largest Producer of Medical Cannabis in World yet Still Denies Access to Citizens

• A new UN report revealed that the UK is world’s largest producer of medical cannabis
• More than 95 tonnes of legal cannabis was grown in the UK in 2016
• GW Pharmaceuticals, owned by British Sugar, is the main manufacturer
• Medical cannabis remains illegal in the UK

A new report from the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board has exposed the cruel hypocrisy underlying Britain’s drug policies.

The UN revealed that the UK is the largest producer and exporter of legal medical cannabis in the world, while simultaneously denying its citizens the right to access medical cannabis.

The report which used data from governments all over the world, found that the UK produced 95 tonnes of cannabis in 2016, more than double the 2015 total of 42 tonnes.

The majority of this “legal” cannabis is produced by one company: GW Pharmaceuticals. GW made headlines in 2010 after releasing Sativex: a controversial, cannabinoid-based, medication, legal to purchase in the UK.

Sativex is “an oromucosal spray of a formulated extract of the cannabis sativa plant that contains the principal cannabinoids delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) in a 1:1 ratio.”

GW is legally growing cannabis containing THC despite the British Government viewing cannabis as having “no medicinal properties,” refusing to remove it from Schedule I, the strictest level of drug schedule.

The blatant hypocrisy of the British Government is an insult to the millions of medical cannabis users in the UK who are routinely criminalised and punished for accessing the same medication the British Government allows a large Multinational Company to legally export all across the world

“It is profoundly unethical, and a violation of the fundamental right to health, to deny people access to medicines that are prescribed by their doctors.”
– Steve Rolles, Transform’s Senior Policy Analyst

The Tory Government denies that cannabis has medical uses, with Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, claiming that cannabis leads users onto harder drugs, such as heroin, ignoring the research which proves that cannabis is an “exit drug,” helping many addicts to come off harder drugs.

While the Tory Government denies that cannabis has any medicinal value, at all, one of their own MPs, personally profits from the fact the UK is the largest producer of medical cannabis in the world.

Atkins has rallied against legalising cannabis for medicinal purposes on multiple occasions.

Atkins, the Minister for Drugs, is married Paul Kenward, the managing director of British Sugar.

British Sugar owns GW Pharmaceuticals.

A sceptic may be of the belief that she is working to ensure her husband’s company remains the only one with a medical cannabis license in the UK…Discussing the UN’s findings, Steve Rolles, Transform’s Senior Policy Analyst said:

“It is scandalous and untenable for the UK government to maintain that cannabis has no medical uses, at the same time as licensing the world’s biggest government approved medical cannabis production and export market.

“UK patients are either denied access and suffering unnecessarily, or are forced to buy cannabis from the criminal market. Countries with proper access to medical cannabis do not have this problem, as standardised cannabis products are in the hands of doctors and pharmacists.

“It is profoundly unethical, and a violation of the fundamental right to health, to deny people access to medicines that are prescribed by their doctors.

“The government must relax restrictions that grant a monopoly for a single product to a single company.

“It must allow access to cannabis-based medicines that serve patients needs – what they don’t need is the government’s cruel and misguided war on people who use drugs.“

If the Government truly believed that cannabis has “no medical properties,” they would not allow their country to be used to grow the most amount of legal cannabis in the world.

Money talks.