Sarah Godfrey, a patient-researcher, provides opinion on Emerald’s Real World Impact blog about how the UN reclassification of cannabis achieves little for patients’ rights.

"The removal of cannabis and cannabis resin from schedule IV by the UN appears to be a positive move and has been touted to speed up desperately-needed human clinical trials; however, cannabis extracts and tinctures remain in Schedule IV and the UN still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug, meaning a drug with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for what is classified as abuse. The UK government still categorises cannabis as a class B drug, with the penalty for possession being up to 5 years in prison and up to 14 years for production and supply.

Speaking as an illegal UK cannabis patient and home-grower, I am (literally) painfully aware that cannabis should not have been criminalised in the first place, that prohibition has caused far more harms than those it professes to prevent, and that prohibition is a breach of fundamental human rights. Every day, I risk arrest and prosecution for keeping my incurable disease with life-threatening complications in remission by using herbal medicine and functional nutrition, because cannabis is one of the many herbs and superfoods I take daily to make my life bearable…”

To read more: UN reclassification of cannabis achieves little for patients’ rights