Edward Henry KC and Shannett Thompson consider with Tom the law on access to medical cannabis.

In 2018, following the campaign of Hannah Deacon, whose son Alfie Dingley has severe treatment resistant epilepsy, the Government changed the law so as to allow cannabis to be prescribed on the NHS.

But since then, only a vanishingly small number of children with conditions apparently improved by the medicine have secured prescriptions.

Tom asks why, whether that will remain the case, and what may be needed to change it.

Edward Henry KC is the Head of Regulation at Mountford Chambers. He advises commercial clients in the cannabis market and has assisted the parents of children with STRE in their battle for access. He also specialises in the scrutiny of scientific evidence in the medico-legal field, and presented Andrew Malkinson’s successful appeal, after 17 years of wrongful imprisonment, which centred upon DNA evidence.

Shannett Thompson is a Partner in the Regulatory Team at Kingsley Napley. She trained in the NHS and began her career exclusively defending doctors. She provides regulatory advice to a varied client base particularly in the health sector, and has built up a niche in advising investors and businesses in the cannabis sector.

Hannah Deacon - the mother of Alfie Dingley, who has one of the only prescriptions of medical cannabis on the NHS - is a long-standing campaigner for access. She is now Director of Maple Tree Consultants, supporting businesses entering and expanding in the market.

Written and presented by Tom Cross. Produced by Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Lennon Hutton.