My GP phoned me this morning. I’m glad she phoned because I was getting concerned about my Sativex prescription. She had some bad news that Brent NHS Trust no longer want to pay for it.
The National Hospital recommended it for my use and it got approved for me on prescription.
The Government approved cannabinoid medicine for people with neurological conditions under special license for people with MS and a couple of other conditions such as Epilepsy back in 2010.
I immediately requested it and got in early whilst other people were a lot slower.
The debate raged for several years as not all health authorities were prepared to stump up the high cost of the medicine which costs over £375 per month.
This drug is still technically illegal after David Cameron moved Cannabis up to a different level.
This was his anti drugs campaign. So Cannabis related medicines are still technically classed as illegal.
As far as I know it is still illegal in some countries which presents travel problems.
I’m not totally sure if this issues still exist today as it many years ago now.
The first thing was my GP was completely obvious about the dosage and told me it was one spay per day.
The recommendations by GW Pharma given with the spray give quite specific instructions on it usage.
This is that you slowly build up the dose to 12 sprays per day. It is in the instructions that come with your first prescription. That is after day 14.
So who knows what going on. It appears that some parts of London are still paying for it on the NHS.
I hope they sort it all out because it does work. I have been taking it for about 10 years now several years now and coming off it with mean that the sever spasticity the MS Suffers get because that is what MS does.
So Is it just the Government snatching back money in cost saving episode for it health budget, or some other reason ?