A WOMAN was stopped at Heathrow Airport last Monday, trying to bring a banned substance into Britain. The mother had her 12-year-old son with her. Neither of these occurrences are without precedent, but what makes this story unique is that the mother herself alerted the authorities that she had the illegal substance in her baggage, explaining the drug – cannabis oil – was lifesaving medication for her son.
That woman was Charlotte Caldwell from Tyrone and her son is Billy, a boy cursed with a particularly severe form of epilepsy that sees him suffering up to 100 seizures a day.
Billy’s condition was so severe that the Caldwells' GP, Dr Brendan O’Hare, bravely wrote a script for medical cannabis for him in 2017. When the Home Office informed Dr O’Hare he could no longer prescribe the drug for Billy, they shunted responsibility over to a non-existent Northern Ireland Assembly, arguing it was the Department of Health for Northern Ireland’s responsibility to consider controlled drug licensing applications. Billy’s story is all the more tragic now that he is being used as a political football between the UK government and a non-functioning assembly.
Now would be the appropriate moment to state Billy’s story has nothing to do with the ongoing debate about legalising cannabis. Pure medicinal cannabis oil (CBD) contains none of the hallucinogenic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) the psycho-active substance associated with the ‘high’ in marijuana. However, the oil prescribed for Billy does contain a trace of THC, but so little even if you drank his six months supply you wouldn’t experience any ‘high’.
What we are talking about is a substance obtained from the marijuana plant that has been proven effective in treating a multitude of medical conditions. In Billy’s case, two drops of medicinal cannabis daily led to 18 months with no seizures. It is tragic that he had a seizure within hours of his medication being seized at Heathrow as a result of being forced to go ‘cold turkey’ – this is a boy where any single seizure could lead to death.
There will be many of you who view this as the thin edge of the wedge; if we allow medicinal cannabis oil, you fear the floodgates will be opened. What you fail to appreciate is there is no such thing as a bad drug, only the bad use of a drug.
As an example, take heroin, the bogeyman of all illicit narcotics. While we see its destructive effects in most cities, what many people don’t appreciate is that diamorphine is the medical name for heroin. Yet while the misuse of heroin blights lives, diamorphine is used daily in our hospitals and hospices to alleviate pain and suffering. I hear no demand for it to be banned because it originates from the same poppy plant as heroin.
The use of cannabis oil in the treatment of epilepsy did not start with Billy Caldwell; there are many similar stories around the globe where impossible cases have been successfully treated with the oil. So let’s park the whole illegal drug debate – it has no part to play in this story.
What makes the story completely ludicrous is the fact that the UK is one of the world’s largest producer of medicinal cannabis.
One of the major manufacturers of medicinal cannabis within the UK is British Sugar, whose managing director Paul Kenward, just happens to be married to the Home Office under-secretary of state Victoria Atkins MP, who has responsibility for drugs policy. Ms Atkins has voluntarily excused herself from policy decisions regarding medicinal cannabis due to her marriage to the country’s biggest manufacturer of the drug. This conflict of interest led to her refusal to meet Billy Caldwell’s mother, who had wanted to press her child’s case.
So we have a seriously sick child denied an effective drug by the government of a country which happens to be world’s biggest exporter of that very same drug. We have a drugs minister unable to meet Billy’s mother because her husband is the boss of a company that produces that drug.
I have no doubt both Michelle O’Neill and Arlene Foster are wonderful mothers and both would do anything if their children were sick and needed treatment. I would therefore urge both to set aside their differences and project a united front in support of Billy Caldwell.
Because of the DUP’s ‘confidence and supply’ arrangement with the Tory government, Mrs Foster has the opportunity to use her influence to bring confidence to Charlotte Caldwell that her son's supply of medicinal cannabis will be reinstated immediately.
