Brexit Interrupts Dutch Supply Of Medical Cannabis To British Patients

The new cross Channel “order” splitting the UK from the continent hits cannabis patients first and hard

As was easy to predict, Brexit interrupted vital supplies of medical cannabis (from Holland’s Bedrocan) from reaching British patients. The news hit families on December 15 – less than two weeks before the implementation of new rules and regs. Indeed, the families involved, well used to the need for a highly visible public campaign, made such a stink that the political repercussions are already forcing the government to look for alternatives. 

They are not that hard to find – if you know the industry.

But the question remains, since this was so predictable, why wasn’t this thought about before?

In the short term, at least according to the Independent in the UK who picked up the story after The Guardian broke it, government officials are trying to find solutions and they should not be that hard to find.

Dutch law, however, as some media are reporting, most certainly does not “prohibit” the export of medical cannabis – see Germany right next door.  If that were true, indeed most EU GMP compliant German medical cannabis flos could not have been dispensed via pharmacies so far. 

The process had previously been certified via “issuing British prescriptions” in Holland and having them filled this way.

All the British government actually has to do, in fact, is follow the lead already set by Germany and indeed by Israel in the past. Buy in bulk, flos if necessary, and extract it in the UK. There are already facilities that are being set up to do the same. 

But that kind of thinking, if not process creation is so far sadly absent in just about all things Brexit. Just look at the mess of Channel crossings. Cannabis was always going to be an early victim of the melee.

The question now, among those who work in complex supply chain issues like this all the time – and for many reasons – is how to mend the gap, not only in the short term, but permanently.

Make sure you book your tickets to the International Cannabis Business Conference when it returns to Europe in the summer of 2021!