Ross-shire MP Jamie Stone backs campaign to make medical cannabis available on NHS for epilepsy sufferers facing uncontrolled seizures

ROSS MP Jamie Stone has today reiterated his support for the campaign to make medical cannabis accessible on the NHS.

This campaign rides on the fact that 30 per cent of epilepsy sufferers do not respond to medication and therefore live with uncontrolled seizures.

Some of these children and young adults suffer hundreds of devastating seizures every day. Nearly all have exhausted the traditional pharmaceutical anti-epileptic drugs.

We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis where normal families are struggling to get by. On top of this, some families are having to shoulder monthly bills of £2000 every month just to make sure that their child will make it through the day without suffering multiple potentially fatal seizures.

Medical cannabis has been legal in the UK since 2018 but access on the NHS remains blocked.

Despite the UK Government promising to ensure medical cannabis would remain available on the NHS during Brexit negotiations, only three children in the UK can access it this way, according the MSP.

Mr Stone said: "Reminding the Government of this campaign is more important now than ever. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis where normal families are struggling to get by. On top of this, some families are having to shoulder monthly bills of £2000 every month just to make sure that their child will make it through the day without suffering multiple potentially fatal seizures.

"This is unacceptable. When medical cannabis is a viable and sensible solution to giving children their lives back, the Government must not dither in making it accessible. Whether it's through the NHS or by setting money aside to pay for private prescriptions, the Government has a responsibility to keep these children and young people with epilepsy safe."

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