This informal CPD article ‘Medical cannabis and police guidance: assessing the latest changes for UK patients’ was provided by Dr Sue Clenton, Medical Director and Specialist Consultant Oncologist at Releaf, a HealthTech company dedicated to transforming access to Cannabis Based Products for Medical use (CBPMs) in the UK.
The relationship between cannabis and the UK police has a long, detailed and often turbulent history. Having first become prohibited in the UK back in 1928 (1), cannabis convictions went from 575 in 1965 (2) to almost 9,000 a decade later in 1975 (3).
As of March 2025, fifty years on, there were almost 200,000 reported cannabis seizures by police forces and the Border Force, with 94% of all Class B drug seizures related to cannabis (4). That’s represents a considerable shift. It’s therefore may be no wonder that many medical cannabis patients often have concerns about carrying their medication with them, for fear of being stopped, searched or arrested by the police.
While medical cannabis may have been approved for legal use in the UK since 2018 (5), recent years have shown that there remains a sizeable gap in terms of what this reality means for patients (6, 7). Fortunately, updated police guidance was issued by the Association of Police Controlled Drug Liaison Officers (APCDLO) earlier this year, offering what could be a real turning point (8).
For the first time since the government updated the law, officers across England and Wales now share one set of principles for dealing with medical cannabis patients (8). This article will look at what’s changed and, perhaps more importantly, what the latest guidance actually means for prescribed medical cannabis patients in reality.
What does the new police guidance actually say?
The main idea behind APCDLO’s updates is to shift the mindset of UK-based police officers, encouraging more of a “patient first, suspect second” approach (8). In other words, rather than seeing somebody with cannabis as an immediate suspect, the guidance recommends that police officers should treat them as a medical cannabis patient first, only escalating the situation if there are justifiable grounds to assume otherwise. (8)
Having been approved by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC)in January 2026, the guidance has since been implemented across all 43 police forces in England and Wales. (8) While some media platforms originally reported that this could provide cannabis users with a potential loophole to exploit, in practice it’s not as black and white as that (9).
The guidance isn’t designed to give anyone a free pass. It’s simply there to give police officers a clearer way to distinguish between legitimate patients and confirm whether a person’s possession of cannabis is lawful. It’s also there to help give medical cannabis patients some clarity around the law, offering practical guidance to protect their rights and reduce potential harm. (10)
Why these updates are important for police officers and medical cannabis patients
Medical cannabis has been legal to prescribe to eligible patients in the UK since November 2018 (5). But the actual law and everyday reality of what these changes mean haven’t always married up. Until these latest updates were published, there had been no clear national guidance on what the law change meant for the UK police force (6, 7). Generally, enforcement was left up to each individual county to manage, which led to a variety of patient experiences.
While one medical cannabis patient may have dealt with an understanding, trained officer in one area, they may have been treated very differently when travelling further afield. This was supported by research at the time as well, with some studies finding that patients weren’t the only ones noticing issues in the current system.
During a cross-sectional study of 200 UK police officers published back in 2024, 28.5% of those interviewed were shown to not actually know that cannabis could be legally prescribed to patients (7). That’s despite four years having passed since the law was changed and the survey was conducted. Not only that, but two-thirds of those surveyed had either received no training or felt like the training they had been given wasn’t adequate (7).
Nearly 90% also said they wanted more training opportunities, believing they would benefit from having a deeper understanding of what medical cannabis is and how to correctly identify those who are prescribed it legally (7). In other words, these recent updates appear to be looking to put these statistics into practice.
Association Police Controlled Drug Liaison Officers
Have the updates made an impact?
It’s too soon to tell with certainty, but the new guidance has been a step in the right direction. Updated guidance alone is unlikely to automatically fix everything, especially when considering the historical stigma that has surrounded cannabis use up to this point. The culture is only really likely to see any kind of change when it's supported by adequate training initiatives, as has been seen through research over recent years. (6)
After running a training session for new officers in 2024, researchers found that two-thirds of those surveyed felt they knew ‘a lot about prescribed cannabis’, compared to just 10% beforehand. (6) They also noted that training led to a significant reduction in stigmatising attitudes and highlighted the need to improve operational practices in a way that “builds public trust, reduces harm, and avoids reputational damage”. (6)
But herein lies a major issue: making this change is much easier said than done. Within the same study, almost half of the officers said they still wouldn't change their practice despite having an improved level of knowledge, due to feeling they couldn't without support from senior officers. (6) So just because the training works, the change of attitude still likely needs to stem from the top down.
What should medical cannabis patients do if they get stopped by police?
From a patient perspective, there are a few things it’s important to remind prescribed medical cannabis patients of, especially if they do get stopped by the police for any reason. Here are some of the key points for patients to remember:
- It’s a legal form of prescription medication: Medical cannabis prescriptions are legal in the UK, provided it was prescribed by a specialist, dispensed by a licensed pharmacy and administered exactly as directed (5, 8).
- The packaging is important: If a patient does get stopped, showing the police officer the medication’s original packaging with the dispensing label can allow them to more easily identify its legal status (8).
- They don’t need a prescription letter: While there is no legal requirement to carry a letter that proves their medical cannabis prescription, it wouldn’t hurt and could actually help make police encounters smoother (8).
- Certain medical cannabis administrations are illegal: In the UK, it’s illegal to smoke dried flower (8). It must only ever be administered via a vaporiser.
- Driving with prescribed medical cannabis is a grey area: There’s a legal defence for patients who drive after taking medical cannabis, provided it has been prescribed correctly, administered exactly as intended and doesn’t impair their driving ability (11). But this can be difficult to prove to an officer, so useful advice is for patients to completely avoid driving if there's any chance they may be impaired or have taken more than their prescribed dose.
A step in the right direction
The updated APCDLO NPCC-approved guidance coming out earlier this year feels potentially like a significant turning point. After years of patients often living in fear of being stopped by police, and even allowing this to avoid taking their medication, it will be refreshing for many to see some sense of change being actioned across England and Wales.
There’s still a long way to go and further funding will be needed to deliver effective training opportunities for the police force. For now, at least, it’s important for clinicians to remind patients that they’re not on their own and, with time, change should be coming.
Thanks to the latest updates, patients should now be seen by the police more for who they actually are - not suspects, but legitimate, law-abiding citizens who take medical cannabis to improve their quality of life.
We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Releaf, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
References:
- Balkissoon, L. (2021). Cannabis: A Political Garden Tool. Kent Law Review. 6(1). https://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/klr/article/view/1020.
- UK Parliament. (1966). Cannabis (Convictions): Volume 729: debated on Tuesday 24 May 1966. [Internet]. Available at: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1966-05-24/debates/973ba1db-18e5-4382-adca-4966f2b0366c/Cannabis(Convictions).
- Hansard. (1978). Drug Offences: Volume 949: debated on Thursday 11 May 1978. [Internet]. Available at: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1978-05-11/debates/c6f32e33-b5cc-4d26-b892-04e2fd2d3fed/DrugOffences.
- GOV.UK. (2026). Seizures of drugs in England and Wales, financial year ending 2025. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seizures-of-drugs-in-england-and-wales-financial-year-ending-2025/seizures-of-drugs-in-england-and-wales-financial-year-ending-2025.
- GOV.UK. (2018). Government announces that medicinal cannabis is legal. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-that-medicinal-cannabis-is-legal.
- McGrath, L. & Wilson, H. (2025). Training the police on legalized medical cannabis: lessons in building public trust, reducing harm, and avoiding reputational damage. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice. 19:paaf047. https://academic.oup.com/policing/article/doi/10.1093/police/paaf047/8321816.
- Erridge S, Wang C, Troup L, Sodergren MH. (2024). Awareness of medical cannabis regulations among UK police officers – a cross-sectional study. Med Leg J. 92(2):99-102. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00258172241237650.
- Association of Police Controlled Drug Liaison Officers. (2026). Medicinal Cannabis and the Police – Guidance for Officers and Staff. [Internet]. Available at: https://justicebydesign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/APCDLO-Medicinal-Cannabis-Guidance.pdf.
- The Telegraph. (2026). Police told not to arrest cannabis users if they say it's medicinal. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.leafie.co.uk/news/uk-police-new-guidance-medical-cannabis/.
- Cannabis Industry Council. (2026). CIC Welcomes New Police Guidance on Prescribed Medicinal Cannabis. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.cicouncil.org.uk/cic-welcomes-new-police-guidance-on-prescribed-medicinal-cannabis/.
- Cannabis Industry Council. (2023). Prescribed Cannabis Medicines - Possession, Use and Driving. [Internet]. Available at: https://www.cicouncil.org.uk/app/uploads/2023/11/CIC23_04.2-Prescribed-Cannabis-Medicines-Possession-Use-and-Driving-Guidance-for-Police.pdf.
