Caroline Lucas: Some reports suggest that even Alfie Dingley, whose case gave rise to the new legislation, probably would not be eligible for medicinal cannabis under the new regulations because they are so strict. The Health and Social Care Secretary says that 95,000 clinicians are ready and waiting to sign off prescriptions, but can he explain why they are not doing so? If it is as easy as that, surely...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answers of 23 October and 22 November 2018 to Questions 179178 and 191899 on Cannabis: Misuse, whether the National Crime Agency (a) does not routinely test the strength of street cannabis or (b) monitors the strengths of all illicit drugs seized by the police.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 November 2018 to Question 188046 if he will request the data from the National Crime Agency on the strength of cannabis seized by that agency in order to enable a (a) comparison with the work undertaken by King's College London and (b) study of the data’s relevance to (i) users’ health and (ii) the...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2018 to Question 179178, on Cannabis: Misuse, whether the results of the monitoring of cannabis seized by The National Crime Agency in (a) 2005, (b) 2008 and (c) 2016 concurred with the findings of the research on the strength of cannabis covering that same time period by King’s College London;...
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will establish a duty for his Department to routinely monitor the potency of street cannabis; what assessment he has made of the implications for Government policy of the research by Kings College in (a) 2005, (b) 2008 and (c) 2016 on the potency of street cannabis; and if he will make a statement.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the medicinal cannabis industry on the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of (a) cannabis and (b) cannabis-based medicinal products.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations he has received from pharmaceutical companies on the use of medicinal cannabis in the last two years; and if he will publish the information his Department holds on the position of those companies on whether cannabis and cannabis-based medicinal products should be rescheduled under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make funding available for multi-centre trials on the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of (a) cannabis and (b) cannabis-based products.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether part one of the Government’s two-part review of the scheduling of cannabis will consider evidence from overseas, including Germany, of the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of cannabis and cannabis-based products.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what input the Department of Health and Social Care will have into the Government’s two-part review of the scheduling of cannabis.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of the medicinal cannabis industry on the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of cannabis and cannabis-based medicinal products.
Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of staff his Department will require to process applications for medicinal cannabis; what estimate he has made of the number of such applications that will be made; and if he will make a statement.
Caroline Lucas: ...the right hon. Gentleman agree that it is unfathomable that medicinal opiates, which are the same family as heroin, can be prescribed for medical reasons—usually for pain relief—yet medicinal cannabis cannot be despite the strong evidence base that it should be? Crucially, can the Minister give us the evidence base that is informing the Government’s position?
Caroline Lucas: ...are no downsides to the kind of policy change that we are talking about, no matter how hard he looks for them? Why will he not commit at the very least to trials of the regulation of medical-based cannabis? That could, for example, answer questions about how best to differentiate between different types of use and facilitate research that might otherwise be hindered.
Caroline Lucas: ...she has (a) had and (b) plans to have with (i) her counterparts in other Government Departments and (ii) the pharmaceutical industry on the medical evidence and research that exists on the use of cannabis for medical treatment; and if she will make a statement.
Caroline Lucas: ...no real interest in looking at the evidence. Yes, we have heard two medically qualified people speak, but there is plenty of medical evidence out there that suggests that, for example, freeing up cannabis for medicinal use is a positive thing to do. Will the Minister undertake to look at the evidence?
Caroline Lucas: ..., David Cameron, back in 2005 when he was a contender for leadership of the Conservative party. At that time, he also said that it would be “disappointing” if radical options on the law on cannabis were not looked at. Since then, he has reversed his position almost 180° and done what, sadly, all too many politicians do once they have secured power—ignored the evidence and, in the...
Caroline Lucas: I thank the hon. Gentleman very much for his recollection. It is of a time before I was in this House, but he has made a very eloquent testament to the fact that cannabis does not act as a gateway drug; it does not drive people to crime or to act antisocially. Successive Governments have used carefully calibrated snapshots in time in an attempt to illustrate that the laws are working to...
Caroline Lucas: ...evidence that drug use is going down. The only real model that we can see over time is that there was a 32% increase in respect of some of the most serious drugs, heroin and morphine, last year. Cannabis use has been coming down, but that has happened irrespective of the policy context and of whether it has been class B, class C or anything else.
Caroline Lucas: ...known, be banned. I appreciate what they are trying to do with that policy, but I think that it is misguided. It fails to appreciate that many legal highs are the products of prohibition. Synthetic cannabis, for example, would not exist if there were a legally regulated supply of real cannabis. Nor does the policy recognise our knowledge that prohibition—in other words, banning...