UK authorities release confiscated cannabis after boy hospitalised

[rooster59]

UK authorities release confiscated cannabis after boy hospitalised

By Estelle Shirbon

 

FILE PHOTO: Charlotte Caldwell, and her son Billy, leave the Home Office after a meeting with officials to discuss how Billy can have his severe epilepsy treated with cannabis oil, which is a banned substance in Britain, in London, June 11, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's interior minister used an exceptional power on Saturday to release medicinal cannabis oil that had been confiscated from an epileptic boy who was later hospitalised suffering from seizures.

 

Billy Caldwell, 12, had travelled to Canada with his mother, Charlotte, to get the cannabis oil after Billy's doctor was ordered to stop prescribing it, but when they flew back into London on Monday customs officials confiscated their supplies.

 

The boy was hospitalised on Friday after suffering several seizures.

 

His case has stirred debate on the therapeutic use of cannabis, with politicians from different parties backing the family and campaigners calling for changes to the law.

 

"This morning, I've used an exceptional power as Home Secretary to urgently issue a licence to allow Billy Caldwell to be treated with cannabis oil," the minister, Sajid Javid, said in a statement. "My decision is based on the advice of senior clinicians who have made clear this is a medical emergency."

 

Charlotte Caldwell, who says Billy was free of seizures when he was using the cannabis oil, made a statement to reporters outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where her son was being treated. She called for the law to be changed.

 

"No other family should have to go through this sort of ordeal, travelling halfway around the world to get medication which should be freely available to our desperately ill children," she said.

 

"This is a wake-up call for our country. In the 21st century we need to have a more humane policy, not panic measures. I hope the government reflects upon what happened and what they've put our family through these last few days."

 

The Home Office had previously said that while it was sympathetic to the child's plight, it had a duty to stop banned substances from entering Britain.

 

Under British law, cannabis is listed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning that it is not recognised as having a therapeutic value. Schedule 1 drugs can be used for research purposes and clinical trials, but only under a Home Office licence.

 

The Caldwell family, who normally live in Northern Ireland, have received support from several members of parliament from different political parties, including Dan Poulter of the ruling Conservative Party.

 

Billy Caldwell had been receiving medicinal cannabis oil on prescription by his family doctor for over a year, but supplies ran out after the Home Office ordered the doctor to stop prescribing it.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-06-16

[ThreeEyedRaven]

41 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Under British law, cannabis is listed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning that it is not recognised as having a therapeutic value

Well, given that the boy was fine while he was using it, not well at all when taken away, and fine again once re administered, they might want to reappraise their line of thought on that one. It is very sad, when sick people are denied their correct treatment, simply to make it illegal to get high on pot for the rest of the population. Especially since the law is flouted daily by millions. And look at the photo. The kid looks VERY happy now!

The Home Office had previously said that while it was sympathetic to the child's plight, it had a duty to stop banned substances from entering Britain.

And of course, no weed is being grown there right?

Edited June 16, 2018 by ThreeEyedRaven

[Credo]

3 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Well, given that the boy was fine while he was using it, not well at all when taken away, and fine again once re administered, they might want to reappraise their line of thought on that one. It is very sad, when sick people are denied their correct treatment, simply to make it illegal to get high on pot for the rest of the population. Especially since the law is flouted daily by millions. And look at the photo. The kid looks VERY happy now!

And of course, no weed is being grown there right?

Well, I agree with you, but with all due respect, if they pick up someone with heroin and they are fine and then they take it away and they are not fine, it doesn't make the drug legal.   

 

[Thian]

6 hours ago, rooster59 said:

"No other family should have to go through this sort of ordeal, travelling halfway around the world to get medication which should be freely available to our desperately ill children," she said.

 

Why didn't she go to Holland? Canada is not around the corner like Amsterdam is.

[quadperfect]

3 hours ago, Credo said:

Well, I agree with you, but with all due respect, if they pick up someone with heroin and they are fine and then they take it away and they are not fine, it doesn't make the drug legal.   

 

Ignorance is bliss and i have a feeling youre in bliss. Epileptic seizures are not from withdrawel.

[thaiguzzi]

My ex secretary who ran the office in my UK workshop uses this oil. Buys it from Holland. It is extremely strong. It is fantastic for pain relief (back). It does not get you stoned. It is expensive but a little goes a long way.

[Topdoc]

Remember the story about Joy Smith who cured her 'terminal' cancer with cannabis oil?
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/cannabis-oil-cancer-joy-smith-14770663 

 

Big pharma must be getting worried!

[Geoffggi]

10 minutes ago, Topdoc said:

Remember the story about Joy Smith who cured her 'terminal' cancer with cannabis oil?
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/cannabis-oil-cancer-joy-smith-14770663 

 

Big pharma must be getting worried!

Too true, and I personally know of others who have cleared their internal cancers with the use of cannabis oil, it is by no means an isolated case.

[Kieran00001]

1 hour ago, thaiguzzi said:

My ex secretary who ran the office in my UK workshop uses this oil. Buys it from Holland. It is extremely strong. It is fantastic for pain relief (back). It does not get you stoned. It is expensive but a little goes a long way.

 

That is CBD oil and is legal in the UK, this kid needs cannaoil, which will get him stoned as a side effect.

[faraday]

6 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

That is CBD oil and is legal in the UK, this kid needs cannaoil, which will get him stoned as a side effect.

As he has epilepsy, he really does not need to get stoned.

 

I knew a girl many years ago who was epileptic, & said she fitted whilst stoned, & completely aware of the seizure, including wetting herself.

[Kieran00001]

6 minutes ago, faraday said:

As he has epilepsy, he really does not need to get stoned.

 

I knew a girl many years ago who was epileptic, & said she fitted whilst stoned, & completely aware of the seizure, including wetting herself.

 

Quote

Although some children with epilepsy respond positively to CBD, the conditions of others, such as Billy, respond only to THC-derived products. 

 

[lubfishin]

13 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Well, given that the boy was fine while he was using it, not well at all when taken away, and fine again once re administered, they might want to reappraise their line of thought on that one. It is very sad, when sick people are denied their correct treatment, simply to make it illegal to get high on pot for the rest of the population. Especially since the law is flouted daily by millions. And look at the photo. The kid looks VERY happy now!

And of course, no weed is being grown there right?

The strain has been selectively breed to give the best benefit for children with siezures. Isreal is on the cutting edge with their selective breeding program where different plants are bread to treat very specific ailments. It's real medicine, not just something you buy on the street from a pot dealer.

[Dionigi]

I seem to remember a few years ago the British government commissioned a report concerning drugs and the recommendation was to legalize cannabis. The government ignored the recommendation and moved cannabis to a higher rating.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7845023.stm

[Kieran00001]

2 minutes ago, Dionigi said:

I seem to remember a few years ago the British government commissioned a report concerning drugs and the recommendation was to legalize cannabis. The government ignored the recommendation and moved cannabis to a higher rating.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7845023.stm

 

They not only ignored his advice but they also sacked him.

[faraday]

2 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

They not only ignored his advice but they also sacked him.

Prof David Nutt.

 

Didn't tell the government what they wanted to hear.

 

"With just one puff, cannabis will turn you into a fiend"

 

 

[Aupee]

5 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

My ex secretary who ran the office in my UK workshop uses this oil. Buys it from Holland. It is extremely strong. It is fantastic for pain relief (back). It does not get you stoned. It is expensive but a little goes a long way.

I know a lady in her Fifty's who used to pop up the road and roll a few joints every morning for a chap suffering from MS. It gave him bit of pain free movement and got him through the worst spells. With out it he was basically bedridden. The whole thing was done on villagers helping villagers basis like borrowing a cup of sugar over the garden fence!! 

[Basil B]

17 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

And of course, no weed is being grown there right?

Worst part is the police are just not interested, I often work as part of a team enforcing "Warrants of Entry" to access gas and/or Electricity meters, on discovery we have to call the police, we have to wait for hours for the police to turn up, a few weeks ago a Warrant Officer called the police to a industrial unit with over 600 plants, hour and a half later the police call back to say they could not send anyone, one of the team put the pictures on social media that evening with comment "Police can't be bothered" well the brown stuff sure did hit the fan.

[Kieran00001]

12 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Worst part is the police are just not interested, I often work as part of a team enforcing "Warrants of Entry" to access gas and/or Electricity meters, on discovery we have to call the police, we have to wait for hours for the police to turn up, a few weeks ago a Warrant Officer called the police to a industrial unit with over 600 plants, hour and a half later the police call back to say they could not send anyone, one of the team put the pictures on social media that evening with comment "Police can't be bothered" well the brown stuff sure did hit the fan.

 

What makes that the worst part?

[Basil B]

3 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

What makes that the worst part?

Sad fact is we just do not have enough police to uphold the law... 

 

day in, day out now I see youths on unregistered bikes, no helmets, doing wheelies on busy roads giving the police the finger and guess what...

  

Quote

Home Secretary Sajid Javid has revealed he was a victim of a moped mugging in north London.

In a Sun on Sunday interview, Mr Javid said he reached for his phone to call a taxi outside Euston station when the thieves rode on to the pavement.

They grabbed his phone and zoomed off, he said, which left him "angry and upset".

He said he is now working on a review to give police more power to pursue moped thieves.

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44510120

[Kieran00001]

2 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Sad fact is we just do not have enough police to uphold the law... 

 

day in, day out now I see youths on unregistered bikes, no helmets, doing wheelies on busy roads giving the police the finger and guess what...

  

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44510120

 

The issue is not really the number of police, we have almost twice as high a ratio of police officers as we did 50 years ago, but crime has increased 6 fold in the same period.

 

Kids riding motorbikes dangerously and without helmets is not a good thing, but back to my question, what makes the police not caring about some cannabis plants the worst thing?  In my opinion, you have already named something worse, and I think there are probably lots of other thing that are a lot worse than some plants, aren't there?  So it may actually be the best thing that the police are not wasting their valuable time pursuing victimless crimes when there are peoples lives at risk on the roads, etc.

[Basil B]

4 hours ago, faraday said:

Prof David Nutt.

 

Didn't tell the government what they wanted to hear.

 

"With just one puff, cannabis will turn you into a fiend"

 

 

Think his name was spelt with one "T".

 

Cannabis can have a bad effect on some people particularly after prolonged abuse.  

[Kieran00001]

2 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Think his name was spelt with one "T".

 

Cannabis can have a bad effect on some people particularly after prolonged abuse.  

 

He said it was less harmful than alcohol, nothing nutty about telling the truth.

[Basil B]

4 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

The issue is not really the number of police, we have almost twice as high a ratio of police officers as we did 50 years ago, but crime has increased 6 fold in the same period.

 

Kids riding motorbikes dangerously and without helmets is not a good thing, but back to my question, what makes the police not caring about some cannabis plants the worst thing?  In my opinion, you have already named something worse, and I think there are probably lots of other thing that are a lot worse than some plants, aren't there?  So it may actually be the best thing that the police are not wasting their valuable time pursuing victimless crimes when there are peoples lives at risk on the roads, etc.

Obviously you are not a landlord, I have meet many landlords in tears after discovering the damage to there property, the criminals behind these farms are making big profit at the misery of others.

 

[Kieran00001]

2 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Obviously you are not a landlord, I have meet many landlords in tears after discovering the damage to there property, the criminals behind these farms are making big profit at the misery of others.

 

 

I am a landlord actually and my landlord insurance costs a couple hundred quid a year, its worth it for the peace of mind but for me the risk is looting as it sits empty some of the year, and it has happened already twice so I really need the insurance, as does every landlord, lots of tenants can cause you a bill, but I know that the weed farms can cause a lot of destruction, there have even been cases where they've knocked out internal walls, but its pretty unusual, most tenants just live in the houses, the weed factories are outnumbered thousands to one, and there are all sorts of issues we need the police for, weed farms are about the last thing I want them spending my taxes on.

[Basil B]

2 minutes ago, Kieran00001 said:

 

He said it was less harmful than alcohol, nothing nutty about telling the truth.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked

Quote

Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis

David Nutt was a  neuropsychopharmacologist, I am sure if he were a psychiatrists he would have come to a different view.

[Kieran00001]

1 minute ago, Basil B said:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/30/drugs-adviser-david-nutt-sacked

David Nutt was a  neuropsychopharmacologist, I am sure if he were a psychiatrists he would have come to a different view.

 

Nutt is a doctor in psychiatry, he also lectured in psychiatry at Oxford University and is a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatry, he is a very well accomplished psychiatrist who happens to work in the interdisciplinary field of neuropsychopharmacology.  So now that you know he is a psychiatrist how do you feel about his view? 

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎6‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 2:23 AM, Credo said:

Well, I agree with you, but with all due respect, if they pick up someone with heroin and they are fine and then they take it away and they are not fine, it doesn't make the drug legal.   

 

If someone wants to kill themselves with heroin that should be their right. It's only because it was made illegal that it became a problem.

Same goes for cannabis. Time for some people to stop thinking they can tell everyone else what to do.