Can we be Europe's leading producer of medical cannabis and not recognize its effectiveness?

Yes.

The United Kingdom is, in fact, Europe’s leading producer of medical cannabis. In 2016, it produced 95 metric tons of cannabis—more than double the amount produced in 2015, according to official figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime—which accounted for 44.9% of the global legal total for that year.

That year, the closest competitor was Canada, with 80.7 metric tons. The British press is quick to tout the United Kingdom as the world’s leading producer of legal cannabis, but 2017 saw the rise of Canadian cannabis exports all over the world.

According to our calculations, the United Kingdom is now the world’s second-largest producer of medical cannabis, until it is dethroned by Israel.

And yet, the United Kingdom does not recognize the effectiveness of medical cannabis. The British government regularly states that cannabis has «no therapeutic value,» as was recently the case with Alfie Dingley, a 6-year-old with epilepsy, who was seeking a waiver to use cannabis in the UK after trying it and seeing his condition improve in the Netherlands.

Most of the legal cannabis production in the United Kingdom is used to produce Sativex by GW Pharmaceuticals. This oral spray, which contains cannabidiol (CBD) and THC, is prescribed primarily to treat spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis, but is covered by the local health insurance system, the NHS, only in Wales.

«It is scandalous and untenable that the British government maintains that cannabis has no medical use, while at the same time authorizing the world's largest production of medical cannabis for domestic use and export.» said Steve Rolles, a member of Transform, a group advocating for drug law reform.

«British patients are either denied access and suffer unnecessarily, or are forced to buy cannabis on the black market. Countries with actual access to medical cannabis do not have this problem, because standardized cannabis products are available through doctors and pharmacists.»

Contradictions are therefore possible, and it doesn't stop there. The British minister responsible for drug policy at the center of major conflicts of interest. While she opposes any idea of decriminalization, her husband works for British Sugar, which grows cannabis for… GW Pharmaceuticals, and thus benefits directly from the prohibition of cannabis in the United Kingdom.