The Ulster Unionist Party’s Health Spokesperson, Roy Beggs MLA, has said that following the travesty of Billy Caldwell having essential medication withdrawn and later seized, followed then by the Home Secretary being forced into using an exceptional power to return it, the time is now long overdue for the UK to make a permanent and compassionate decision on the use of medicinal cannabis oil.
Roy Beggs said:
“It is frankly outrageous that the Caldwell’s were forced to fly to Canada for a six-month supply of the prescribed medication, only for it to be later cruelly seized at the airport.
“Charlotte Caldwell has not only been an enduring hero to her son Billy, but also to the thousands of other people across the UK campaigning for an evidence-based approach to the use of medicinal cannabis oil.
“In 2018 it is simply not good enough that increasingly archaic legal restrictions were put in the way of delivering the best possible care to a 12 year old boy.
“The time is long-overdue for the UK to make a final decision on the medical use of cannabis oil. It works in the case of Billy Caldwell, and there is an ever growing evidence base of it working for many other conditions. Until then, I fear the Caldwell’s won’t be the only family to get caught up in the legal ambiguity surrounding the use of the medication.”
