A mother from Bradford whose son could benefit from legal cannabis medicine does not believe the move to permit its prescription will become effective until specialist doctors have been given proper training.
Emma Smith’s five-year-old son Oscar has myoclonic astatic epilepsy, also known as Doose syndrome. The family have tried many medications, and are desperate for him to be given cannabis-based Epidiolex, an almost pure CBD.
She told the Telegraph & Argus: “We’ll have to wait and see but training needs to be what they’re pushing for. There are no specialist doctors. They haven’t been trained.
“Our hospital [the LGI] told our neurologist not to prescribe anything. I think the problem is neurologists don’t have the training and knowledge and until you change that things won’t change.”
Mrs Smith also questioned whether the medication Oscar could try will be on the approved list: “They are not telling us what will be available. What do they mean by medicinal cannabis? Are they talking about [active ingredient] THC?
“I’ll be happy when I see the first prescription written.”
Read the UKCSC’s response to the introduction of prescriptions here.