Sign our letter to the Prime Minister | PatientsCann UK® Skip to content Medical Cannabis Awareness WeekOpen letter It’s been legal for 8 years. Stop the hate and fear. We are writing to the Prime Minister to ask him to stand with prescribed medical cannabis patients. Add your name and postcode, and we will hand your signature in to 10 Downing Street on Saturday 7 November. PatientsCann UK®Hand-in: Saturday 7 November 202610 Downing Street, London Add your name Read the letter Download PDF Who it is toThe Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Prime Minister What we needYour name and postcode. That is all. When we hand it inSaturday 7 November, at 10 Downing Street The letter The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MPPrime Minister10 Downing StreetLondonSW1A 2AA It’s Been Legal for 8 Years: Stop the Hate and Fear Dear Prime Minister, This week is Medical Cannabis Awareness Week, and we are asking you to stand with prescribed medical cannabis patients across the United Kingdom. Medical cannabis became legal to prescribe on 1 November 2018. Eight years later, legality has still not delivered equality, understanding or meaningful access. Medical Cannabis Awareness Week exists because patients continue to have to explain, defend and fight for recognition of their medicine. Patients are still treated with criminality for taking medication prescribed by specialist clinicians. They are challenged at work, questioned in public, denied access to pubs, venues and community spaces, separated from their medication and repeatedly forced to prove that they are patients, not criminals. The discrimination reaches into every part of life. Patients face workplace drug-testing and zero-tolerance policies that may fail to distinguish prescribed treatment from illicit use. Some fear complaints, eviction or homelessness because landlords and housing providers misunderstand their medication. Others are refused entry to pubs, social clubs, entertainment venues, sporting events and the very community spaces that should protect people from loneliness and isolation. They face uncertainty while driving, travelling and interacting with the police. They encounter misunderstanding within hospitals, care homes and other health and social-care settings. Some are unable to administer their prescribed treatment or find that lawful medication is viewed as a behavioural, safeguarding or illicit-drug concern rather than part of their healthcare. For people who rely on adult social care, the consequences can be especially profound. They may depend on carers, supported accommodation, residential services or local authorities to respect and facilitate their prescribed treatment. Poor understanding can interfere not only with medication, but with a person’s autonomy, dignity, independence and ability to remain connected to their community. You have spoken powerfully about creating a social-care system founded on dignity, security and support. You have also emphasised the importance of listening to lived experience and bringing government departments together rather than allowing people to be passed around a fragmented system. Medical cannabis patients need those same principles applied to them. Too many people who might benefit from treatment remain unable to access it through the NHS. They must pay privately or go without. This creates a cruel divide between those who can afford lawful treatment and those who cannot, while patients already prescribed privately may find that other parts of the health and care system do not understand or properly recognise their prescriptions. Behind every failure is a person. A worker afraid to disclose their prescription. A tenant frightened that misunderstanding could cost them their home. A social-care user whose treatment is questioned or disrupted by those responsible for supporting them. A patient turned away from a pub, social club or community venue and cut off from ordinary social life. A driver anxious that lawful medication may be misunderstood at the roadside. A disabled football supporter uncertain whether they will be admitted with their medicine. A family paying privately because meaningful NHS access remains beyond reach. A patient who has followed the law but is still made to feel ashamed. You recently argued that it was unfair for football supporters to be singled out and prevented from consuming alcohol in sight of the pitch when supporters of other sports are treated differently. You called for outdated assumptions to be reconsidered and described the unequal treatment of football supporters as discriminatory. We urge you to apply that same principle of fairness to patients. Alcohol is a recreational product. Medical cannabis is prescribed medication. If football supporters’ ability to drink alcohol deserves national debate, disabled patients being denied entry, prevented from carrying medication or forced to choose between treatment and participation demands attention too. The same principle applies to pubs and community spaces. These are not merely commercial venues. They are places where friendships are maintained, loneliness is reduced and communities come together. A patient should not be excluded from them because staff or security do not understand a lawful prescription. Nor should a person’s medication contribute to housing insecurity or homelessness. Nobody should fear losing their accommodation because a landlord, housing officer or support provider mistakes prescribed treatment for illicit drug use. These are not separate problems. They are connected expressions of the same failure to recognise patients as patients. The person challenged at a football turnstile may already have faced discrimination from an employer, landlord, police officer, healthcare professional, social-care provider or pub door staff. Patients should not have to renegotiate the legitimacy of their medication in every workplace, home, hospital, care setting, stadium and community space they enter. The consequences are emotional as well as practical. People withdraw from employment, healthcare, and community life. Some alter or interrupt their treatment because they fear confrontation. Others experience financial hardship, housing insecurity, worsening health, damaged relationships and profound isolation. Enough is enough. It’s Been Legal for 8 Years: Stop the Hate and Fear. We are urging you to: Publicly recognise medical cannabis patients as patients, acknowledging the stigma, exclusion, financial pressure and institutional barriers they continue to face. Meet medical cannabis patient groups and people with direct lived experience, including patients affected by barriers in employment, housing, homelessness services, social care, healthcare, driving, policing, sport, pubs

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Our plan for Medical Cannabis Awareness Week 2026 | PatientsCann UK® Skip to content MCAW 20261 to 7 NovemberEight years of legal prescribing Our plan for Medical Cannabis Awareness Week, day by day Eight years after medical cannabis became legal to prescribe in the UK, we are taking the patient voice to race tracks, patient lounges, a public pop-up and No. 10 Downing Street. Pick a day, save the events you like, and add them to your calendar. –Days –Hours –Minutes –Seconds until MCAW 2026 begins on Sunday 1 November. See our planJoin our DiscordThe whole weekAdd your event PatientsCann UK® at MCAW 2026 Where we will be Our aim is to bring patients together, take accurate information into public spaces, help Drive Out Cannabis Stigma and show that prescribed patients belong everywhere. You do not need to come to the whole week. Some details are still being confirmed, so check back here. Help choose our pop-up On Thursday 5 November, the public picks where the PatientsCann UK® team holds an awareness pop-up. We will run the poll on Discord, Instagram and Facebook. Discord is the best place to vote, get updates through the week and meet other patients from anywhere in the UK. It is a safe, moderated space and free to join. Join our DiscordInstagramFacebook Want to help on the day? Our volunteers welcome patients, share resources and help capture the week. Become a volunteer and we will send you a full briefing. MCAW belongs to everyone The whole week at a glance Other groups are running their own events too. Here is what PatientsCann UK®, United Patients Alliance and MCUK have shared so far. Tap any event to see the details. Saved events are shaded, and anything that overlaps with another saved event is flagged. Running something yourself? Add your event. ShowPatientsCann UK®United Patients AllianceMCUK MCUK’s programme runs from Monday 2 to Sunday 8 November. Sunday 8 November falls outside the usual 1 to 7 November week. Other MCAW 2026 programmes What United Patients Alliance and MCUK are planning United Patients Alliance MCUK United Patients Alliance (UPA) is running a theme for each day of the week, starting with patient stories on 1 November. Session times have not all been shared yet. See the UPA MCAW page. MCUK is running evening sessions from Monday 2 to Sunday 8 November, with an extra afternoon session on Thursday 5 November. All times are UK time. MCUK says the speakers and panel line-ups are still being finalised, so there may be small changes to the session descriptions. Your event Running something for MCAW 2026? Add it to this page MCAW belongs to the whole community, and nobody needs permission to take part. If you are running an event or activity between 1 and 7 November, big or small, in person or online, tell us about it. We will check the details and add it to the week at a glance so more patients can find it. Your name Email Group or organisation (optional) Event name DayChoose a daySunday 1 NovemberMonday 2 NovemberTuesday 3 NovemberWednesday 4 NovemberThursday 5 NovemberFriday 6 NovemberSaturday 7 NovemberMore than one day Time (if known) How will people join? In personOnlineBoth Venue address, or online link What is happening? Website or social media link (optional) I agree to PatientsCann UK® storing these details so they can contact me about this event. I agree to the event name, day, time, place and description being shown on this page and shared on PatientsCann UK® social media. My name and email will not be published. Send my event Thank you. We have your event and will check the details before adding it to this page. Remember to share it with #MCAW and #MCAW2026. My week 0 My week Close Add all to my calendar

<p>The post MCAW 2026 first appeared on PatientsCann UK®.</p>

Interactive history The Cannabis History Atlas People have grown and used cannabis for thousands of years, for rope, food, medicine and faith. Drag the timeline to travel through time. The map shows each country’s cannabis laws in that year, and the pins show where key moments happened. Show 2026Today +–1:1 Key EarlierLater Read Play speed0.25x0.5x1x2x Pause at each moment ScrubbingNormalSlowFine Arrow keys jump between moments. Shift and arrow keys nudge the year. Legal status is simplified to one colour per country and dates before the 20th century are often approximate. Laws change often. If you travel with a prescription, check the current rules for the country you are visiting before you go. References

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