Asked by Baroness Meacher To ask Her Majesty's Government
whether they will issue a special licence under Section 30 of the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to enable the family of Alfie Dingley to
import cannabis-based medication to treat his epilepsy. The
Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford)
(Con) My Lords, the Government have a...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will issue a
special licence under Section 30 of the Misuse of Drugs Act
1971 to enable the family of Alfie Dingley to import
cannabis-based medication to treat his epilepsy.
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The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of
Trafford) (Con)
My Lords, the Government have a huge amount of sympathy for
the rare and difficult situation that Alfie and his family
are faced with. My right honourable friend the Policing
Minister has undertaken to meet Alfie Dingley’s family as
quickly as possible. Both he and my right honourable friend
the Home Secretary want to explore every option within the
current regulatory framework, including issuing a licence.
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(CB)
I express my sincere thanks to the Minister for that very
positive reply. I understand from it that Ministers are now
united in wanting to find a legal way to support Alfie
Dingley so he can receive medical cannabis in order to lead
some sort of life.
I want to set out the main reasons why Ministers have to
succeed in this case. The Minister knows that Alfie Dingley
was suffering from a very unusual epilepsy mutation. This
was causing 3,000 epileptic fits a year, 250 a month, under
UK-prescribed medication which will probably lead to
psychosis, damage to his internal organs and early death.
Alfie Dingley and his family spent five months in the
Netherlands, where Alfie was treated by a
neuro-paediatrician with cannabis drugs. During that
period, Alfie Dingley suffered one or possibly two seizures
per month, down from 250 per month in this country.
On the legal question, the Minister knows that under
Section 30 of the 1971 Act, licences can be provided.
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Noble Lords
Too long.
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I express my profound thanks to the Minister and her
colleagues in the other place for their absolute commitment
to find a way under the law to enable this poor six
year-old child to continue his life.
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I thank the noble Baroness for her positive words
acknowledging the way forward that I and other Ministers
want to find for this little boy. As she said, this little
boy has a very rare form of epilepsy. I am very pleased to
hear that his seizures have reduced and very much look
forward to a positive way forward being found.
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of Bradford
(Lab)
My Lords, we know that the Government successfully licensed
heroin-assisted treatment, or diamorphine-assisted
treatment, which is prescribed in a synthetic form to
people who do not benefit from or cannot tolerate
substances such as methadone. We know that the success
rates for that group of patients in terms of health, social
care, incarceration and money saved show that there is real
benefit from heroin-assisted treatment. Why cannot that
simply be put in place for cannabis-based treatment as
well?
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With respect, I point out to the noble Lord that the
Question is specifically about the medicinal use of
cannabis for a very specific case. The noble Lord is
probably straying on to the legalisation of drugs in a
controlled way. I am not going there today because I have
not been asked a question about it, but I have had many
debates about it and the Government remain of the review
that such drugs remain illegal.
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(LD)
I am grateful to the Minister for her commitment to explore
every option. Is she aware of the legal opinion from
Landmark Chambers making it clear that there is an
exception under Section 30 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971,
which allows that a licence for possession of a controlled
drug can be permitted for medical purposes? Will she make
use of that exception to save this little boy’s life?
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Well, I hope that I made it absolutely clear that we would
explore every legal avenue that we could, and that both the
Policing Minister and the Home Secretary would look at all
legal avenues within the regulatory framework, so I hope
that she takes comfort from that.
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(Con)
Could my noble friend take a look at the history of how
controlled drugs have been used for medical purposes? I am
not somebody who would support deregulation of drugs but,
as a small girl, I was offered the option when a school
dentist extracted a tooth of having either gas or cocaine.
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Noble Lords
Oh!
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That was many years ago, but that was the choice. Of course,
up and down the country today, hospitals will be dispensing
opioid drugs to patients, many of which are derivatives of
opium, and I really do not see why, if the legal framework is
there to do it, we cannot get on and do it rather quickly.
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My noble friend makes precisely the point that I perhaps did
not make as well, which is that within the legal framework we
have to explore the art of the possible to bring such drugs
forward that will help people in situations similar to
Alfie’s. Before I became a politician, I worked extensively
with people who had multiple sclerosis, and I know that
Sativex has been produced in aid of alleviating spasticity in
suffers of that illness.
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(CB)
My Lords, can I move away from the sad case that we have
heard about and those particular circumstances and move to a
more general point on that issue? Does the Minister agree
that the time has now come for a complete and urgent look at
the situation? As many of us know, cannabis is currently
included in Schedule 1 to the Misuse of Drugs Act as a drug
with no medicinal value, yet that view has been roundly
rebuffed by a number of countries in the world. I cite, for
example, 12 EU countries—shortly that number will grow to
15—29 states in the USA, Canada, Israel and so on, all of
which use cannabis under medical supervision. Will the
Minister assure the House that the Government will look at
this issue and at the licensed medicinal use of cannabis in
these circumstances?
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The noble Lord has nicely segued through the general use of
it back to the medicinal use, but I concur with him in saying
that we must keep laws like this under review. Certainly, the
WHO is currently reviewing cannabis as a whole, and the
constituent parts of cannabis. The noble Lord is right that a
number of states in the USA have actually legalised its use.
We are keeping a very close eye on the outcome of that review
and will take a view on it in due course.
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