Business
#005 – In this episode I meet Clark French and Leila Simpson from the United Patients Alliance (UPA). The organisation are a patients advocacy group who campaign for better access to medical cannabis in both the private and public health sectors. Some of the things Clark And Leila discuss in the episode include: - The UPA was founded in 2014 by Caroline Lucas and Professor David Nutt to raise awareness for medical cannabis. The organisation aims to support patients that use cannabis. The UPA is a support and advocacy group. - Currently there is no funding available for medical cannabis on the NHA as CCGs can't afford cannabis. A few private prescriptions are starting to happen, but are still quite rare. The cost for a private prescription is over 3x the street price for cannabis so many patients cannot afford it. - Some patients have said they can grow their own cannabis instead of paying for it privately. However this is not legal in the UK. - Carly's Barton a fellow patient, has an Amnesty campaign called 'Carly's Amnesty' to allow medical cannabis users to grow up to 9 plants for personal use. However, patients still encounter problems with the authorities and Carly's home was visited by the police and items related to the personal grow confiscated - There is a challenge in providing clinical evidence to satisfy NICE/ the medical establishment to show that Cannabis is safe. They require a body of evidence and the UPA are trying to help produce that body of evidence. - Stigma can still cause medicinal cannabis users problems with landlords and neighbours. - There is urgency as according to Clark patients as advocates are the 'Frontline of the battle.' To find out more about the UPA visit - https://www.upalliance.org/ For the full episode show notes visit - https://cannamachine.co.uk/ep005-united-patients-alliance-interview-medical-cannabis-uk