

The British government has acknowledged that marijuana can be used for medicinal purposes.

Officials from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recently announced that products containing cannabidiol (CBD) can be considered medicine, reports the Huffington Post.

“We have come to the opinion that products containing cannabidiol are a medicine,” said the MHRA, in a statement to the press. “Products for therapeutic use must have a medicines’ license before they can be legally sold, supplied or advertised in the UK. Products will have to meet safety, quality and effectiveness standards to protect public health.”

The review came as a result of discussions with the CBD vaporizer company MediPen, and concluded that CBD has a “restoring, correcting or modifying” effect on “physiological functions” when administered to humans.

According to the MHRA’s assessment:

‘The MHRA has now completed it’s review and has considered all information available to it relating to Cannabidiol(CBD) and having taken into account all the scientific advice and evidence, it has come to an opinion that products containing Cannabidiol will satisfy the second limb of the definition of a ‘medicinal product’ because it may be used by or administered to human beings either with a view to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action, or to making a medical diagnosis.’



CBD is a compound found commonly in marijuana known to be therapeutic for certain health concerns, and not responsible for the ‘high’, which is activated instead by THC.

The chemical is known to effectively treat some forms of cancer, epilepsy, depression, multiple sclerosis, and post-traumatic stress disorder.