Britain’s stringent rules on medical cannabis harm patients

SATIVEX comes in a small brown glass vial. Each spray, delivered under the tongue or to the cheek, emits 100 microlitres of a solution including alcohol, peppermint oil and a mixture of THC and CBD, the active ingredients in cannabis. GW Pharmaceuticals, its manufacturer, insists it is a “cannabis-based medicine”, not “medical marijuana”, since it is made to exacting pharmaceutical standards. It nevertheless contains extracts from Cannabis sativa, the cannabis flower and plant, and some users report a mild high. It can be prescribed by doctors, most often to sufferers from multiple sclerosis (MS).