The mother of a boy with severe epilepsy has called for a meeting with the home and health secretaries to talk about making medical cannabis legal for children who have similar conditions to her son.

Charlotte Caldwell said it was “absolutely horrific” and “cruel” that 12-year-old Billy had been refused cannabis oil after Home Office officials confiscated a six-month supply. She is seeking a discussion on the issue with Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt.

She added that his condition was now beginning to improve after being allowed to have some of the treatment on licence.

Caldwell said: “I want to meet the home secretary and health secretary, urgently, this week, to get assurance that not only will Billy’s meds never again be removed, but to call for an urgent review of the overall policy on medical cannabis as it affects everyone who could benefit.”

She added that she would not stand by and let any other family endure what she had. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Caldwell said: “It’s absolutely horrific, it’s cruel.”

“I’m asking Sajid now. I’m in London, I can assure him I’m not going anywhere, until this is now put in place and this medicine is made accessible to all the other children that desperately need it.”

The government’s initial refusal, and then its change in stance, has prompted renewed debate on legislation.

Crispin Blunt, an MP who co-chairs an all-parliamentary group on drug policy reform, has described the current stance on marijuana’s medicinal properties as “crazy”.

“We need to get serious now about getting the benefits of these medicines, and move to change the frankly absurd position we are in,” he said, according to the BBC.



The former drugs minister Norman Baker has described the confiscation as “cruel and inhumane”, and renewed calls for a law change. “It became very clear to me in my time as drugs minister that cannabis has useful medical properties and, indeed, that it is the only substance that works for some people, a situation widely recognised in other countries,” he said.

Billy began using cannabis oil, which contains the substance Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in 2016 to control his seizures.

THC is illegal in the UK but available for use medicinally elsewhere, including much of the US, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Caldwell claimed Britain’s drug policy was “stuck in the 1970s”. She credits the oil with keeping her son seizure-free for more than 300 days.

Billy’s most recent supply, which came from Canada, was confiscated when he and his mother arrived at Heathrow airport from Toronto. After Billy suffered “life-threatening” seizures without access to his supply, Javid issued a special licence to provide him with treatment.

The oil was administered under a 20-day licence and is not allowed to be taken home. A spokeswoman for the Home Office said it was an “exceptional licence” for a “short-term emergency” and it would need to be reviewed.

“He has 20 days’ worth of anti-epileptic seizure drugs. What happens after that? Another battle?”, Caldwell said.

Meanwhile, Robin Emerson, 30, whose two-year-old daughter, Jorja, suffers from severe epilepsy as a result of a rare chromosome condition, has called on the government to act now to license medicinal cannabis oil.

Emerson, from Belfast, told Sky News: “We can see from other countries such as America, Canada, Australia, Germany. In all those countries this medicine is available, it’s working, it’s saving children’s lives.

“I feel the UK needs to come in line with the rest of the world. If Jorja goes into seizure tomorrow, I could lose Jorja, that is the reality of the situation. Jorja will die. I need the opportunity now, not next month or the month after, to save my daughter.”