As the UK’s medical cannabis industry continues to come under fierce scrutiny from the country’s mainstream media, James Duckenfield, CEO of UK-based cannabis cultivator Glass Pharms, argues that the focus should be on ensuring compliance with the existing regulatory framework rather than sensationalising a prescribing rate that remains a small fraction of demonstrable clinical need.

Although the number of patients being prescribed medical cannabis by private clinics is increasing in the UK, the rate of development is very significantly lower than in other comparable countries like Australia, where it was legalised around the same time, but where around a million people have now been prescribed medical cannabis. All prescribing in the UK is done based on clinical need, which is clearly described in the relevant legislation.

An “exceptional clinical need” is defined as where an individual has a diagnosed condition that has not responded to traditional, licensed treatments. Common practice is the need arises after a patient has not responded to two or more licensed treatments (where those are available). At this point a physician on the Specialist Register can prescribe a cannabis-based product for medicinal use (CBPM) where they consider it appropriate.

In 2018, Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK government, conducted a review of the therapeutic and medicinal benefits of cannabis-based products.

She found that there was “conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective…for the treatment of chronic pain in adults.”

Her review of the evidence was used in the decision to reschedule cannabis-based medicinal products to Schedule 2 prior to the amendment of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations that made CBPMs legal in the UK in the same year.

Considering the number of patients living with chronic pain in the UK, which, according to the British Pain Society is around 28 million adults, the recently reported demand of 100,000 items per month by The Times on 29 March 2026 reflects a probable total of around 30,000 active patients in that month for all conditions, not just chronic pain. In contrast, there are more than 5.6 million people in the UK who have received an opioid-based prescription for chronic pain.

The current prescribing level of CBPMs in the UK remains well within the boundaries of demonstrable unmet clinical needs and represents, at the current levels, just a small fraction of the estimated 1.77 million people in the UK who are using cannabis to treat medical conditions.

With any medicine, it is important that prescribing is appropriate. Many medicines, mis-prescribed, can lead to serious consequences for a patient. Medical cannabis is widely prescribed on a global basis to millions of patients with a good safety record.

Rather than overly sensationalising the prescribing of cannabis-based products for medicinal use, we should be ensuring that these products are being supplied in compliance with existing framework and the regulators effectively police bad actors.

We need to ensure CBPMs are produced under the appropriate conditions to ensure quality, consistency and with full adherence to the strict UK standards required.

UK-based cultivation designed for a medicinal supply chain is the best way to achieve this, rather than depending on imports from countries where adult-use recreational cannabis is legal and grown to much lower standards.

Cultivation in the UK is scaled according to the demonstrable clinical need required by the CBPM framework, and we work closely with all of the relevant regulators to ensure that supply is appropriate to the requirements of UK patients.