A cannabis executive is calling for law enforcement agencies to be better educated on medical cannabis, after a court ruled UK border force officers wrongfully seized his prescription.
The managing director of the Canndr medical cannabis platform has spoken publicly for the first time after winning a legal battle against the UK Border Force for the wrongful seizure of his medication.
Adam Windish, who has worked for British Cannabis Group since 2023 as Chief Revenue Officer, travels to the UK regularly for business, bringing with him cannabis-based medication, which he is prescribed abroad for chronic pain.
Windish is also Managing Director of the company’s Canndr platform and patient card, which aims to help protect and identify individuals with legal cannabis prescriptions in the UK.
A matter of weeks after the platform launched in 2023, on 4 December at around 10pm, Windish was stopped by border force officers while going through customs at Heathrow Terminal 4.
Asked if he “had any drugs on him”, he showed them his medication, which consisted of dried cannabis flower, and provided them with a copy of his license and prescription documentation, signed by a specialist doctor and his GP.
He had also contacted the Drugs and Firearms Unit directly ahead of his trip, as he had done on previous occasions, to clarify the requirements and check whether he needed to declare his medication at customs, to which he was told he did not.
Home Office guidelines state that non-UK residents can bring a three-month supply of medication containing controlled substances without a license, but must provide a letter to prove that it was prescribed for them. This includes name, dates of travel, a list of medicine, doses and strength and the signature of the prescribing doctor.
Windish told Cannabis Health that the officers, whom he at times found to be “intimidating” and “dismissive”, refused to believe he was a legitimate medical cannabis patient, insisting that while it “may be legal in other countries, it’s not legal in the UK”.
He says the officers were “uninterested” in looking at the Home Office website, and were “adamant that they make the rules, not the Home Office or the Drug and Firearms Unit”. He was held at customs for several hours while he was questioned, before he was told his medication would be seized and he could continue his journey.
Adam Windish, CRO British Cannabis & Managing Director, Canndr.
“Wrongful seizure and condemnation”
Describing the experience as “extremely stressful”, given his work in the medical cannabis industry, Windish says he felt he had a “responsibility” to challenge the decision on behalf of other patients.
His legal team contacted the Border Revenue Director the following day to appeal and request his medication be returned. This was refused, marking the beginning of a 15-month legal battle which resulted in him taking them to court for wrongful seizure and condemnation.
Windish gave evidence at Uxbridge Magistrates Court on 27 March, where Deputy District Judge McKay deemed all four of the conditions required to bring controlled medication into the UK had been met and stated he was “satisfied the cannabis was not liable to forfeiture”.
However, the Judge felt there had been “reasonable grounds for the seizure” and a Section 144 certificate was issued, preventing Windish and his legal team from seeking legal costs. He added that the case would not set a precedent.
Calls for ‘centralised education’ to protect patients
Windish has described the outcome as a “landmark victory” for medical cannabis patients, affirming their right to travel to the UK legally with their medication.
“No one coming into the UK should be discriminated against because of the medication that they are prescribed,” he told Cannabis Health.
“I can understand that they were trying to do their job, I just wish they had treated me as any other law-abiding citizen, when I had done nothing to break the law.”
He continues: “The nicest thing to see in court was the same officer who had denied that medical cannabis was legal, acknowledging that it has been legal since 2018. The fact that they have admitted this, is a massive step forward.”
Windish is now speaking out about his experience to raise awareness of the need for better medical cannabis education and protections for patients.
“One of the main reasons I did this was to highlight the fact that there is more education needed,” he adds.
“I’m in a privileged place because I’m in the industry. There are people in much worse situations than me. My pain is unbearable without my prescription, but what if it happened to someone with epilepsy who is at risk of having a seizure?”
He is calling for “centralised education” to address the lack of awareness of medical cannabis among the various law enforcement agencies in the UK, and to support them in verifying those who are legal prescription holders. British Cannabis Group also hopes to expand the Canndr platform internationally to help agents identify prescriptions which have been issued overseas.
Rob Jappie, a lawyer and partner at Fieldfisher’s Regulatory Group, who represented Windish, commented: “We are delighted to have been able to support Adam in this matter, and to achieve this result, which affirms the right of patients to travel internationally with the CBPMs. Too often we are seeing patients being mistreated, and we hope that the court’s decision in this matter will mean incidents of this nature occur less frequently in future.”
Cannabis Health has contacted the Home Office for comment but has not received a response at the time of publication.
The post Cannabis Executive Wins Legal Battle Against UK Border Force After Medication Seizure appeared first on Cannabis Health News.
Go to Source
Author: Sarah Sinclair
