Chronic pain wears people out, and not only because of the pain. Ask anyone who’s had it for a few years. It’s the repeat GP visits, the forms, being asked to rate it out of ten again, the pills that work for a fortnight and then sort of fizzle. Gabapentin left lots of folk feeling foggy. Codeine often left them constipated. After a while plenty of patients just stop expecting much.
So back in November 2018, when the law shifted and UK specialists got the go ahead to prescribe cannabis based medicines, people noticed. Of course they did. It’s 2026 now though, and getting hold of a prescription still isn’t as simple as the news stories back then suggested.
A big part of the muddle is about who’s allowed to prescribe. Not your GP, for a start. It has to be a doctor on the GMC specialist register. On the NHS it hardly ever happens for chronic pain, and that’s partly down to NICE, whose 2019 guidance didn’t back these medicines for it. So most patients go private and see a specialist clinic. Not exactly fair on anyone, but there it is, and it’s worth knowing how the private route works before paying anybody anything.
Who Is It Actually For?
Nobody sensible is selling this as a miracle, and a decent clinic won’t pretend otherwise. It tends to come up once the normal options have been tried and haven’t really done the job, or the side effects got so bad they weren’t worth it. Nerve pain is a common one. Fibromyalgia too, and arthritis, back pain that’s dragged on for years, MS related pain. There are others. Those are just the ones specialists see a lot.
The first appointment should be thorough. Expect questions about your history, about what’s been tried already and what happened, plus a check for anything that might make it a bad idea. Psychosis in you or your close family would be one. Certain medicines that clash with cannabinoids would be another. Good clinics will tell people no when it’s no, and they won’t just take the money. Not every clinic is good, sadly. Have a look at reviews, ask how follow ups work, and look the doctor up on the GMC register, which anyone can search online for free.
What the Evidence Actually Shows
Research on cannabis for pain relief is promising in places, patchy in others, and nowhere near finished. In the plant there are chemicals called cannabinoids. THC gets you high and CBD doesn’t, and they’re the two everyone’s heard of. They work on something called the endocannabinoid system, basically a set of receptors in the body that has a hand in pain, inflammation and mood, and in some people that seems to tweak how pain gets felt.
Nerve pain has the best evidence so far. Elsewhere it gets thin fast. A 2022 study looked at people with osteoarthritis or psoriatic arthritis in their hands and CBD tablets didn’t beat a placebo, full stop. Dosing is still being figured out, and so is which products suit which people.
Truthfully, results are all over the place. Some patients say it’s changed their lives. Others notice a small difference, or none. And a few get dizzy or sleepy or end up with a mouth like sandpaper, which for them isn’t a good swap. Because of that, it really shouldn’t be a solo experiment. A specialist needs to be keeping tabs on how it’s going.
Getting a Prescription in Scotland
Scotland follows the same rules as England and Wales here. Same limits on prescribers, same supply rules. Medicann is one of the private clinics up here, registered office in Edinburgh, and specialists look at each case individually and only prescribe if it makes clinical sense. The medicine comes through licensed pharmacies, so it’s been produced and tested properly. Whatever a mate’s selling, or some website nobody’s heard of, hasn’t been.
Then there’s cost, and it’s worth being honest with yourself about it. Clinics charge different amounts for appointments and some don’t charge for the first one at all. The medicine itself is a monthly bill, and how big depends on what gets prescribed and how much. That’s a real stumbling block. Some people reckon it’s worth it for better days. Lots can’t keep it up, and patient groups have been banging on about that for ages, with good reason.
Before You Go Down This Road
Anyone thinking of trying it should dig out their paperwork first. GP letters, hospital letters, scans if there are any. Plus a scribbled list of what’s been tried over the years, roughly when, and if it did anything. Specialists make better calls with more to go on. A lot of clinics want your records before they’ll even book you in, so ask the surgery for them sooner rather than later, as it can take a while.
Also, keep it realistic. It might help. It usually works best as one part of a plan, along with physio, pacing, gentle exercise or a pain management course, and it doesn’t replace them.
Pain that goes on and on should be taken seriously, and there’s more on the table now than ten years ago, which is good. Whether cannabis is right for a particular person is something a specialist who knows their history has to decide. No blog can do that.