A family in the United Kingdom with a treatment-resistant epileptic child is challenging the guidelines laid out by the National Health Service, according to a story from the BBC. Three-year-old Charlie Huges suffered up to 120 seizures daily before being treated with whole-plant medical cannabis oil. After treatment, the young boy was down to about 20 seizures a day. Medical cannabis was legalized in the UK in 2018, but the establishment of a widespread program has been stalled, and few prescriptions for the plant medicine have been written.
According to the current NHS guidelines laid out by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), there was “not enough evidence” for doctors to recommend cannabis medicine for severe conditions like the one that Charlie has. Charlie has a rare epileptic condition known as West syndrome.
Before successfully reducing his seizures to as few as 20 per day, Charlie was prescribed six different epileptic drugs, which were not effective. Charlie’s parents, Ali and Matt Huges told the BBC that they were out of options before his son was prescribed medical cannabis. Medical cannabis also seemed to have reduced Charlie’s chaotic brain activity. These positive developments caused Charlie’s parents to become outspoken about what he sees as the need for policy reform.
Attorney Fights for Cannabis Policy Reform
The attorney working on the Hughes family’s case, Nusrat Zar, is campaigning for policy change. Zar says that doctors with NHS doctors were concerned about prescribing cannabis and did not feel confident in doing so. This is due to the absence of a positive recommendation for doctors recommending cannabis medicine, despite there being no recommendation against it.
Attorney Zar contends that NICE was lacking proper consultation from doctors and medical professionals when the guidelines were being produced. The current NICE guidelines state that the proof of cannabis’ safety, as well as the evidence for its effectiveness as a medical treatment, are limited. NICE offered no comment on what they called “an ongoing legal matter.”
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