A United Kingdom medical cannabis patient recently brought 18 tubs, containing 5 grams of cannabis each, home from a trip to Amsterdam. Openly declaring the goodies picked up on his travel, he received little trouble at customs. In fact, the jar of Dutch mustard he was trying to bring home gave him more troubles, and was seized in Schiphol.

But this was not a spur of the experiment, but rather a well-executed attempt to see just how far medical cannabis has come recently in United Kingdom. The patient is a member of CLEAR, a political party in the United Kingdom dedicated to cannabis legal reform. The group had contacted the Home Office before the patient had even left his home country, to arrange paperwork to help the ground-breaking attempt go smoothly.

He received a doctor’s recommendation, not just for cannabis but for a specific variety Bedrobinol, which his doctor considered the best option for easing his chronic pain caused by adiposis dolorosa, a condition which causes the painful growth of tumors.

According to this article by Peter Reynolds of CLEAR where you can hear the rest of the story, “The officer commended them on being open, honest and straightforward, saying that if they had been stopped without making a declaration, things could have been very different.”

This brave patient embodied the reality of the reform efforts CLEAR is striving for in the United Kingdom with consistent planning, spot-on execution and bravery. The world is changing folks, faster than we are aware.