The Secretary alleges that physicians aren’t bothering to make use of recent legislation that allows them to prescribe the drug to children with illnesses such as severe epilepsy

Secretary of Health Matt Hancock is furious with U.K. physicians, whom he says are failing to prescribe cannabis to children with serious illnesses who could potentially benefit from the drug, pointing to the shortfall as an “immense frustration.”

Hancock made the comments after nine-year-old Teagan Appleby, who suffers from approximately 300 seizures daily, had her three-month supply of medical cannabis confiscated by the Border Force at Southend Airport last week while travelling home from the Netherlands with her mother, Emma.

'Two-tier system' stops NHS patients accessing medical cannabis https://t.co/j4RBTmisD2 — Mattha Busby (@matthabusby) April 9, 2019

The Secretary alleges that physicians aren’t bothering to make use of recent legislation that allows them to prescribe the drug to children with illnesses such as severe epilepsy.

“We changed the law to make sure medicinal cannabis is available on a mainstream basis,” Hancock said this week in the House of Commons. “When that’s the case we need clinical sign-off. The problem is that clinical sign off has not been forthcoming. That’s a source of immense frustration to me as I hope you can imagine, and that is what we are trying to resolve.”

Hancock also said that U.K. physicians were writing far fewer prescriptions for medical cannabis than he had anticipated, although medics must make their own decisions when prescribing medication.

Since legalizing medical cannabis, the U.K. has been plagued with allegations that the drug is nearly impossible to access.

Although the medical community seems wary as a whole, the U.K. recently opened its first cannabis clinic, but it hasn’t approved accessibility for many Brits—the private appointments (which are not covered by the NHS) cost around £200, and prescriptions run as high as £700.