Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which countries his Department is engaging with in order to learn from their experiences in getting patients access to medical cannabis.

In developing its policy on cannabis-based products for medicinal use, the Government looked at approaches taken by other countries to learn from their experience. Broadly two approaches have been taken: to regulate as a medicine (both licenced and unlicensed) as in the United Kingdom or to regulate outside of the medicinal regime as in Canada. In reviewing the available international evidence, the Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, looked at evidence reviews from the United States, Ireland, Australia, and the World Health Organization. Departmental officials have also reviewed information from a wide range of other countries and have spoken to the authorities and organisations in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States (New York).