I take medical cannabis every day

Jon Leeder wakes up every morning, eats some breakfast, and smokes marijuana before heading to work at the office.

The 41-year-old, from Caerphilly in South Wales, uses medicinal cannabis to ease his anxiety but no one Jon worked with realized he was taking cannabis until he agreed to speak to the BBC.

“I was a little nervous… Will they think you came to work drunk?” said Jon, one of the estimated tens of thousands of people in the UK with a private cannabis prescription.

The NHS says the risks of medical cannabis are unclear, while a leading psychiatrist has warned it could harm some patients.

“Private clinics are prescribing high-potency cannabis to people with psychiatric disorders such as depression and PTSD,” Prof Sir Robin Murray, former president of the European Psychiatric Association, told the BBC.

“[There’s] “There is ample evidence that high-potency marijuana worsens these conditions and actually leads to suicide,” he added.

Cannabis can only be prescribed by a specialist counselor who has evidence that other treatments have not worked.

Cannabis “flower” or buds have almost never been prescribed on the NHS since the law changed. Allow this for medical reasons in 2018However, there is a growing private sector.

Most of the patients we spoke to were paying several hundred pounds a month to buy cannabis.

Some patients, like Jon, said using medical marijuana gave them the benefits they were hoping to get from medications like antidepressants.

Getting behind the wheel of a car, going through security at the airport, or even entering a bar or club are all things patients say they need to think about carefully. And to avoid being found guilty, they must always remember to take their prescriptions.

Some say they still live in fear of being stopped by police, fired from their jobs or even losing access to their children because of what they describe as the stigma around marijuana.

One patient told the BBC he received a letter from his neighbor complaining about the smell of cannabis coming from his home.

“I was scared,” admitted Kat Turner, 26, who placed pillows outside her door to stop the smell from spreading.

“They could have called the police, that was my fear. I use my front door as little as possible because I’m afraid of any smells getting into the common area.”

Kat has been using marijuana since being diagnosed with a functional neurological disorder, but the drug can also be prescribed for conditions such as PTSD, OCD, anxiety and depression.

Jon admitted that he was “nervous” when telling his job that he was taking medical marijuana for his anxiety because he thought his bosses might think he would be working “intoxicated”.

“It’s funny how movies and sitcoms portray people who smoke weed as lazy and incompetent,” Jon said. “But it’s not really like that. It just calms me down a bit.”

Jon works for one of the country’s largest employers and he said they were incredibly supportive but asked not to name names.

Patients and clinics who prescribe cannabis say there is little public awareness that cannabis can be legal by prescription, and Jon was concerned that some people might just think of a “lazy stoner” when talking about someone who uses cannabis.

He was first prescribed medical cannabis after a mental health “breakdown” in his late 30s.

“I will experience huge spikes in anxiety, focus on random events from the past, and start panicking about the most random things,” Jon said.

“Weed stops all of this for me.”

Jon, who was recently diagnosed with autism and awaiting a possible diagnosis of ADHD, said he was prescribed “hemp flower,” the industry term for cannabis buds.

One condition for Jon to have access to this treatment is that the buds must be vaporized in a special cannabis vaporizer rather than smoked.

The latest data shows that There were more than 50,000 private cannabis prescriptions in July 2024, and the numbers are expected to increase since then.

Her neighbors weren’t the only ones questioning Kat’s marijuana use; He was also not allowed to take his medical marijuana to the hospital last year.

He says his functional neurological disorder means he can lose “complete control” of his body and suffer intense tics and seizures.

The insurance worker, from South Wales, was given a three-week inpatient rehabilitation appointment at a specialist NHS unit in Bristol.

But he told us that he was told he would not be allowed to have marijuana when he arrived at the hospital, even though he notified staff before arriving.

“They implied that my drugs might be illegal and they wouldn’t really let it in,” said Kat from Cardiff, who uses both cannabis buds and oil.

“They said I could only get the medicine if I left the hospital area.

“My main concern at that point was how would I leave the area to use my medication, because I have mobility issues and I am very vulnerable, especially with my seizures.

“After a long argument that left me feeling like a criminal, I had to make the decision to leave. It felt quite devastating. It felt unfair.”

When Kat was first diagnosed, she was told she would need to start treatment within “three to four weeks” for the best chance of recovery.

But more than three years later, treatment still hadn’t started, and Kat said she relied on cannabis to help her control her tics enough to do things like cut food and brush her teeth.

“If I had not been able to take my medications and control my symptoms, I would not have benefited from the treatment they offered me.”

North Bristol NHS Trust apologized for her experience in a letter, but said she was the first patient to want to use cannabis and they had updated their policies to reflect what they would do if this situation occurred again.

One area where medical marijuana patients said they saw more understanding was concerts and nightclubs.

“I was able to go to festivals and concerts and things like that with cannabis on me,” said Shash Appan, who spends at least £200 a month on cannabis prescriptions for PTSD and fibromyalgia.

The 29-year-old, from Cardiff, said he often received “funny looks” when he went to the smoking area for a night out, but when confronted by bouncers he was always able to explain without issue that it was medical cannabis.

“One of the most important things for me is that I don’t have night terrors as much as I did before,” said Shash, who often uses a wheelchair to get around.

“I know that for some people the initial effects may be binge eating or laughter, but I would prefer that to the depressive, possibly sleepy side effects of opiates.”

Dr David Howells is one of a small number of doctors on the NHS who prescribe medicinal cannabis and said he often sees the harm cannabis can do to patients with a history of psychosis.

But the former NHS consultant in psychiatry believes there is growing evidence to support the use of the drug for other conditions under the supervision of a specialist doctor.

“The biggest evidence base is anxiety and pain,” he said.

Dr Howells said his private number of patients was increasing but many were fearful of how they might be prosecuted for using cannabis.

“Concerns about being stopped [by police] “What they should say to their employers is one of the biggest concerns of patients who come to our clinic,” he said.

Dr Howells said clinic staff needed to intervene on behalf of patients with employers, housing associations, family courts and the police, and described the understanding of the law surrounding medical cannabis as a “postcode lottery”.

The boss of another clinic was forced to intervene on behalf of other passengers on a recent UK flight after armed police boarded the plane following reports of the “smell of cannabis”.

“They wouldn’t let the plane leave before confiscating patients’ medications and dropping them on the conveyor belt when we arrived at our destination,” said Jon Robson, of online cannabis clinic Mamedica.

“This would be unheard of with any other prescription drug.”

Driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal, but There is a medical exemption Provided that patients comply with the prescribed dosages and do not feel deterioration.

“We advise them to always take out their medication in containers or packs with their name and details on it,” Dr Howells said. “This shows that they are using a legal medical product.”

The Police Chiefs’ Council said new guidance was being drafted for police forces to “help alleviate uncertainty” around medical cannabis, but reiterated that any officer was “within their rights” to stop a driver they suspected of being unsafe.

Both the General Medical Council and the Quality Care Commission referred us to existing guidelines on prescribing when asked for comment.

The NHS has previously said the risks from cannabis products are “currently unclear” and that the Advisory Council on Misuse of Medicines is preparing a report on cannabis-based products for medical use for the UK government. It is planned to be published shortly.