Billy Caldwell can go home with hit medical cannabis after the Home Office rubber-stamped a special exemption licence, a family spokesman has said.

On 7 June, his mother Charlotte, from Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, had seven bottles of cannabis oil from Toronto, Canada, confiscated at Heathrow Airport.

Last month, a 20-day emergency licence was granted for the 12-year-old severely epileptic boy after he was admitted to hospital in a critical condition having suffered multiple seizures.

Billy Caldwell has been give the go to bring the cannabis oil back to Northern Ireland (Picture: PA)

But a family spokesman said the Home Office, and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital have now agreed he can go home to Northern Ireland with his medicinal cannabis.




He added: ‘The Department of Health in Northern Ireland are applying for a licence for Billy’s medication to be administered at home in Castlederg.

‘In anticipation of that application being processed, the Home Office have rubber-stamped it and he will be going home at some point this week.’

The spokesman said the special exemption licence was agreed on Monday afternoon.

Charlotte said in a statement that the ‘Home Office clearly wanted this to happen’.

Charlotte thanked the ‘amazing’ Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (Picture: PA Wire)

She added: ‘The amazing Chelsea and Westminster Hospital got behind it, and they’ve helped make it happen.

‘We all now need to make this also happen for all the other families who need medicinal cannabis.

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‘We are in the very final stages of what has been an amazing four weeks. I can barely believe we’ll be home in a few days.

‘Billy has been amazingly resilient throughout. He’s autistic, and everything that has been going on – no regularity, no familiar surroundings – are beginning to take their toll on him.

‘He needs his toys, his garden, the things he’s used to. I need to see him happy and well. I can’t believe he’ll be back in his own bed in a few days. It’s within our grasp.’

Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust and the Home Office both declined to comment.

A new panel assessing claims for the use of the oil has been set up(Picture: PA)

Following the public uproar over the confiscation of the cannabis oil from Ms Caldwell as she attempted to bring it into the UK, a new panel assessing claims for its use was set up.

On Wednesday, the temporary expert panel began accepting applications for licences for the drug from senior clinicians.

The Home Office announced the panel will make ‘swift’ recommendations to ministers, who will then sign off on applications within two to four weeks.

What is CBD oil? Cannabidiol – CBD for short – is one of the most common compounds found in cannabis and hemp leaves It works by binding to cell receptors in the body that effect everyday functions such as sleep and appetite, as well as pain and mood regulation CBD has been used to treat epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain It is taken as oil that you drip under the tongue, but can also be consumed as gummies, or inhaled using a vape It is not psychoactive, unlike the cannabis compound Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), so CBD does not produce the “high” associated with cannabis CBD is legal to buy in the UK, but legal restrictions mean it is sold online as a food supplement, rather than a medicine Research is ongoing, but more investment into clinical trials is needed to explore CBD’s full potential as a medicine. Initial trials suggest CBD may be useful in helping people stop smoking, and even lessen withdrawal symptoms from painkiller addictions CBD is used by sportsmen because of the effect it has on pain, inflammation and recovery CBD is also being trialled for its use as a potential anti-cancer agent.

If given approval, doctors can then start writing prescriptions for their patient, while ministers decide whether to remove cannabis’s banned status as a medicine.

Ms Caldwell said the focus will now turn to a campaign to get ‘every other family equal opportunity, and equally swift progress through the assessment process’.

‘Clinicians simply don’t yet have guidelines, and no clinician will operate outside guidelines, so few are taking what they see as the risk of entering a patient into the assessment process – and even those who have seen the Government’s announcement are hesitant,” she said.



‘We want to help them in any and every way we can.’

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