Alfie Dingley: Six-month reprieve for EU cannabis medicine import
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image copyrightHannah Deacon
image captionAlfie Dingley, pictured with his mother, is well and healthy while using the NHS prescription, Hannah Deacon said.
The mother of a boy with severe epilepsy has welcomed news that medical cannabis imports from the Netherlands can continue for a while longer.
Imports were to stop after Brexit but have been given a six-month reprieve.
Nine-year-old Alfie Dingley, from Warwickshire, would be in danger if he had to use a different product, mum Hannah Deacon had said.
Dutch authorities will allow the continued supply of Bedrocan oil to existing UK patients until 1 July.
Netherlands to supply medical cannabis until July despite Brexit ban Monday, 25 January 2021
The mother of a nine-year-old boy with a severe and rare form of epilepsy who was told Brexit would end the supply of a life-changing cannabis medicine that saved her son’s life has been given a six-month reprieve.
Hannah Deacon said she was hugely grateful after being given the lifeline by the Dutch government, which has sanctioned continued supply of the medicines despite a Brexit ban on fulfilling prescriptions from the UK.
She received a letter on Thursday from the Department of Health to inform her that the government in the Netherlands, where the medicine was created, had “confirmed that they will allow continued supply of Bedrocan oil against UK prescriptions for existing patients until 1 July 2021”.
Another family has come forward detailing how Brexit threatens its ability to acquire life-saving medical cannabis.
Emily and Spencer Carkeet spend £750 (almost $1,300) every month to import high-CBD Bedrolite cannabis oil from the Netherlands to treat their daughter, Clover, who has epilepsy, reports Somerset Live.
The medication has drastically reduced the number of seizures two-year-old Clover experiences, but with U.K. prescriptions no longer valid in the Netherlands following Brexit, the family is just weeks away from its supply running out.
“The government claims to be trying to sort it out, but at the moment, we have about 10 weeks of oil left,” Emily Carkeet told Somerset Live. “We are waiting for a shipment to come in that would last us another three months, but we don’t know if it will arrive.”
BBC News
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While the UK government had been warning of some disruption to trade as the new UK-EU relationship began at the beginning of 2021, some of the consequences seem to have taken people by surprise.
Here are five of the outcomes that have been in the news so far this year.
1. Ham sandwiches confiscated
They had just disembarked from a ferry to the Hook of Holland.
Trade restrictions cover not only the items in the back of the lorry.
UK government guidance says: Drivers travelling to the EU should be aware of additional restrictions to personal imports.