The mother of Alfie Dingley wept with joy today as she was told the government is granting a licence for him to receive cannabis oil for severe epilepsy.
Hannah Deacon was overcome with emotion as she heard the news that Home Secretary Sajid Javid was authorising use of the medication for her six-year-old son.
Wiping away tears during an interview on ITV News, Ms Deacon said: ‘Thank you. Thank you to the Prime Minister.’
The dramatic moment came minutes after Mr Javid had informed the House of Commons that the government is reviewing ‘unsatisfactory’ rules to allow cannabis to be used for medical treatments.
In a statement to MPs, the Home Secretary said after a series of high-profile cases it had become clear that the current system of licensing medicines was not fit for purpose.
He said a licence for cannabis oil for Alfie, who has been waiting for months, would be issued later today.
But Mr Javid rejected a demand from Lord Hague for recreational cannabis to be made legal because the war on the drug had been ‘comprehensively and irreversibly lost’.
Wiping away tears during an interview on ITV News, Hannah Deacon said: ‘Thank you. Thank you to the Prime Minister.’
In a statement to MPs, the Home Secretary said after a series of high-profile cases it had become clear that the current system of licensing medicines was not fit for purpose
Six-year-old epileptic Alfie Dingley from Warwickshire has been awaiting a Government decision on whether he can use cannabis oil medication
Alfie suffers from a rare form of epilepsy which means that he can suffer more than 100 seizures a month.
Earlier this morning, Ms Deacon complained that the Prime Minister had assured her three months ago that his case would be resolved speedily and on ‘a compassionate basis’ – but they had found ‘hurdle after hurdle’ in their path.
Ms Deacon was appearing on the ITV Lunchtime news to talk about her son’s case when presenter Nina Hossain said the Home Secretary was planning to telephone her.
‘I’m also hearing that what he’s going to say to you is that a licence will be issued to Alfie,’ Hossain said. ‘Your reaction to that please?’
Taking a deep breath and wiping her eyes, Ms Deacon said: ‘That’s amazing news. Thank you very much for letting me know. Thank you. Thank you to the Prime Minister.’
In the Commons, Mr Javid said: ‘It has become clear to me that the position we find ourselves in certainly is not satisfactory.’
He said a review was being rushed through, but indicated to MPs that his ‘direction of travel’ was already clear.
The first part of the overhaul, led by chief medical officer Sally Davies, will make recommendations on which cannabis-based medicines might offer patients real medical and therapeutic benefits.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will consider in the second part of the review whether changes should be made to the classification of these products on an assessment of ‘the balance of harms and public health needs’.
‘If the review identifies significant medical benefits, then we do intend to reschedule,’ Mr Javid told MPs.
‘We have seen in recent months that there is a pressing need to allow those who might benefit from cannabis-based medicines to access them.’
Mr Javid said that since becoming Home Secretary in April, it had become clear to him that the current legal position on medicinal cannabis was ‘not satisfactory for the parents, not satisfactory for the doctors, and not satisfactory for me’.
On the subject of a wider legalisation, Mr Javid said: ‘This step is in no way a first step to the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use.
‘This Government has absolutely no plans to legalise cannabis and the penalties for unauthorised supply and possession will remain unchanged.’
Billy Caldwell, 12, was handed an emergency licence to receive cannabis oil over the weekend – the first time the Home Secretary has used powers to sidestep laws on medicinal cannabis.
Billy – an epileptic child who needs cannabis oil to treat his life-threatening seizures – has now been discharged from Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Doctors were bowled over by the effects of the oil, which he needs to suppress up to 100 fits a day.
However, questions remain over what will happen with the special 35-day licence granted by Mr Javid expires.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott welcomed the announcement, telling MPs a review of the scheduling of cannabis was ‘long overdue’.
Ms Abbott said: ‘We welcome the Home Secretary’s statement that he’s going to look more closely at the use of cannabis-based medication in health care in the UK.
‘We agree that this is the right time, if not long overdue, to review the scheduling of cannabis and we are very glad to hear that the Policing Minister has spoke, or will speak, to Alfie Dingley’s mother.’
Ms Deacon said she now hoped obtaining a licence would become easier for families.
‘There are lots and lots of families up and down this country who are suffering with children with severe epilepsy where medication and diet doesn’t work,’ she said.
‘I’m not saying that it should be the first line of medication – there are other protocols to try.
‘But if those protocols don’t work then medical cannabis surely, for the severely ill children, should be made available.
‘It is just madness to think that people should be suffering like they are when there is something that could help them.’
He said the case of Billy Caldwell had provided ‘one of those illuminating moments when a longstanding policy is revealed to be inappropriate, ineffective and utterly out of date’
In the Commons today, Mr Javid dismissed calls for recreational cannabis to be legalised
Recent polling has shown that the public is deeply split over how the government should approach controlling cannabis
Labour frontbencher Andy McDonald said he had lost a son to ‘intractable epilepsy’ and the government should ease the rules on cannabis oil
Until Mr Javid’s statement today the Cabinet has appeared split over whether to loosen the rules on allowing medicinal cannabis use.
Yesterday Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt suggested that Mr Javid had already begun a review, which was denied by the Home Office.
Mr Javid then clashed with Theresa May during a Cabinet meeting, telling ministers it was essential to discuss Billy’s case.
Sources said the PM tried to close down the debate, insisting that the issue was not on the agenda for the meeting. But Mr Javid repeatedly asked her to reconsider. One source said Mr Javid ‘would not take ‘it is not on the agenda’ for an answer’.
Following the clash, Mrs May later suggested that the Government would look only into the operation of the current system of licences for use in individual cases, rather than reviewing the law more widely.
Canada has this year voted to legalise cannabis and recreational marijuana sales became legal in California on January 1 this year, following a number of other US states.
Lord Hague said expecting police to rid the streets of recreational cannabis is futile and called on Theresa May to be ‘bold’ and introduce a ‘major change’ in policy.
Selling cannabis in regulated shops would also bring in billions in new tax revenues and free police to concentrate on either crimes,’ he argued.
Pressure for a shift in drugs policy has been mounting, and many MPs welcomed the extraordinary intervention from Lord Hague. Polls suggest public opinion is finely balanced, with substantial support for decriminalisation or legalisation.
Lord Hague broadened the raging argument about medicinal cannabis by urging the Prime Minister to be ‘bold’ and introduce a ‘major change’ in policy.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Lord Hague added: ‘The idea that this can be driven off the streets and out of people’s lives by the state is deluded.
‘Cannabis is ubiquitous, and issuing orders to the police to defeat its use is about as up to date and relevant as asking the Army to recover the Empire. The battle is effectively over.’
Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that decriminalisation of cannabis was ‘an obvious step to take’.
‘Large amounts of are in circulation in a very damaging form which is poisoning large numbers of young people and resulting in psychological damage,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘That’s what we should be trying to avoid and, as Lord Hague said, the policy is failing.’
Labour former leader Ed Miliband endorsed Lord Hague’s views complaining that reform of drugs legislation was a ‘no go area’
Amid the row over medicinal cannabis, Mrs May said yesterday: ‘Do we need to look at these cases and consider what we’ve got in place? Yes.
‘But what needs to drive us in all these cases has to be what clinicians are saying about these issues.
Former Tory leader William Hague said the war on marijuana had been ‘comprehensively and irreversibly lost’
Labour’s Wes Streeting said there was a ‘strong case’ for licensing cannabis for medical use, but insisted public opinion was against legalising for recreational use
‘There’s a very good reason why we’ve got a set of rules around cannabis and other drugs, because of the impact that they have on people’s lives, and we must never forget that.’
As her son hugged her outside the hospital yesterday, Miss Caldwell said she felt ‘elated’.
Billy still has to return to the hospital twice a day to receive the oil, so they are staying in a nearby flat, paid for by well-wishers.
Miss Caldwell, from Castlederg in County Tyrone, urged Mr Javid and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to meet her so she could make the case to have the treatment legalised for British children with epilepsy that cannot be treated conventionally.
She added: ‘The fact that Billy has been discharged is testimony to the effectiveness of the treatment and underlines how vital it is that every child and every single family affected should have immediate access to the very same medication.
‘Children are dying and suffering beyond imagination.’
Doctors treating Billy are said to have claimed it was a ‘no-brainer’ that the law needed to be changed.
Many MPs have been calling for a legislation change.
Labour backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi said two children in her constituency – aged six and one – had a life-limiting condition and could ‘benefit hugely’ from medicinal cannabis.
Other MPs also raised cases, including that of six-year-old epileptic Alfie Dingley from Warwickshire, whose family is awaiting a Government decision on whether he can use cannabis oil medication.
Conservative former minister Sir Mike Penning said he would personally fetch medicines to treat Alfie if they had not been made available by Wednesday.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith told of a woman with a brain tumour who, after being given two weeks to live, used a form of the drug to get rid of the growth. He said: ‘There clearly are medicinal preparations that can be used.
‘In the health department, it is still not considered a good thing to investigate the medicinal properties of this drug.’
But Tory MP Caroline Johnson, a consultant paediatrician, said scientific tests on animals had suggested it could cause ‘significant psychological problems such as psychosis if used over a long period of time’.