Before
I’ve had mental health struggles for as long as I can remember. By the time I was eight, I was on psychiatric medication, and over the years that list only grew: antidepressants, mood stabilisers, risperidone, different formulations of methylphenidate, sleep medication. Looking back, I was dealing with a lot at once: chronic pain from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, anxiety rooted in autism and C-PTSD, ADHD, and constant problems with sleep and appetite.
The medication was meant to help, but taking so much of it through such formative years came at a cost. I was angry and confused a lot of the time. While my friends were working out who they were and what they wanted from the future, I felt lost, with no passion for anything. Over time, all that medication left me emotionally numb, flat and foggy, almost zombie-like. I started putting myself in dangerous situations just to feel something. I grew up without really knowing who I was.
Finding something that worked
I’ve been pro-cannabis for as long as I’ve known it existed. I tried it occasionally as a young teenager, and I quickly noticed it was doing more for me than getting me high. I slept better and my body hurt less. So I started using it whenever I could, mostly for sleep.
At 17, with a bit more financial stability, I started using it daily for pain and sleep. There’s a history of addiction in my family, and I wanted to avoid opiate painkillers. Over time I came off all my pain medication and my antidepressants. Then at 18 I was told I had to stop taking Concerta XL for my ADHD because of postural orthostatic tachycardia.
Getting a prescription
When medical cannabis became legal to prescribe in the UK, I knew that was the route I wanted. I got my first prescription in 2019, at 19, for pain and anxiety.
Being an early patient wasn’t easy. Back then, prescriptions were only for people who had exhausted almost every other treatment option, and there was very little information or support to help you through it. Just registering with a clinic cost several hundred pounds, and an appointment with a doctor was another couple of hundred on top. Getting that appointment took weeks, with a lot of paperwork to submit first.
After the appointment, my case went to a multidisciplinary review board for approval, which took several more weeks. Only once I was approved could my first prescription be written. And because products had to be imported to order, the import didn’t even start until then. That part alone could take months.
Even once I had my medication, the problems didn’t stop. Product quality was often awful, and a lot of doctors were clearly still working it out as they went.
How far things have come
I’ve watched the industry grow up alongside me. Today there are loads of prescribing clinics, hundreds of products available, and the quality is in a completely different league to those early days.
The process today is almost unrecognisable. You can now be prescribed if you have a qualifying condition and have tried two or more conventional medications. Most clinics don’t charge for registration or appointments at all. You still need an appointment with a doctor, but review boards meet far more often, so the whole thing can take as little as a few days. Products are now imported based on predicted prescribing, so by the time your pharmacy receives your prescription the medication is usually already in stock, and it’s often out for delivery the same or next day. Prices have dropped too, with some products now as low as £2.95 a gram.
That wider choice changed my treatment in ways I didn’t expect. I mainly use flower, and with so many more options available to try, I noticed that some genuinely helped with my focus, which mattered a lot after losing my ADHD medication. Now I’m shifting from just managing pain and sleep to treating each part of my health with products targeted to specific symptoms, and looking at my health more holistically.
What changed, and what didn’t
My day-to-day didn’t change much when I got my prescription, because I’d been self-medicating for years. What changed was the reassurance. I’m no longer breaking the law, I don’t have to deal with dealers, and I know exactly what I’m taking, where it came from, and that it’s been tested.
When legal isn’t enough
Having a prescription didn’t mean everyone accepted it. Between 2021 and 2023, while I was living in supported accommodation, the provider took issue with me taking my medication in my own home, and threatened to evict me over it. It didn’t seem to matter to them that a doctor had prescribed it.
It was one of the most stressful periods of my life. I was constantly panicking, genuinely believing I was going to end up homeless for taking the medicine my doctor had prescribed.
I didn’t let it go. I took my complaint to the Housing Ombudsman, and they ruled in my favour. No patient should have to fight for the right to take their prescribed medicine at home.
The stigma
Stigma is a complicated one for me. I was 19 when I was first prescribed (I’m 27 now), young enough that a lot of people assumed I just wanted a legal way to get high.
I’m a self-professed stoner with a prescription. I enjoy cannabis and I love the culture and community around it, but that doesn’t change how much it helps me.
At home, it’s a different story. My family are all pro-cannabis, and several of them use it themselves. My mum has recently been prescribed medical cannabis too, for chronic pain from Ehlers-Danlos like me.
Some of my family do worry about overuse, so having guidance from doctors is reassuring.
Where I’d like things to go
I hope that one day patients will be able to get their medication in whatever way works best for them, whether that’s choosing it in person at a dispensary, having it prescribed by a doctor like we do now, or growing it themselves.
Beyond that, I hope cannabis becomes available to everyone and a normal part of life, the same way alcohol is. I long for the day people can go to the pub and have a couple of joints rather than a couple of pints.
I don’t think anyone can use cannabis without getting at least some benefit from it, even if it’s just feeling more relaxed. Stress is one of the most common reasons people get signed off work, after all.
If you’re where I was
The UK prescription cannabis industry has changed massively since the beginning, and it’s still evolving. It isn’t the slow, expensive, confusing process I went through in 2019. If you’re considering the move to prescription cannabis, you might as well try it.