Anything is better than an invasion of arrogant, drunken football fans from England—including cannabis—at least according to German police who spoke out on the matter recently, as a major sporting event transforms the area.

UEFA Euro 2024 will take place in Germany from June 14 until July 14, and fans from all parts of Europe are preparing for a showdown. England and Scotland are two of 24 teams who will compete for the European Championship trophy. Around 40,000 Three Lions fans are expected to converge in Gelsenkirchen this weekend ahead of England’s opening group stage game against Serbia.

Metro.co.uk reports that an unprecedented security operation has been launched in order to prevent potential “hooliganism.” England football fans have already been warned against taking part in offensive chants in an attempt to provoke the opposing fans.

The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship is now in the 17th edition of the UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international football (soccer) championship organized by UEFA for the European men’s national teams of its member associations. The winner of UERA Euro 2024 will later compete in the 2025 CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions against the 2024 Copa América winner. 

German police told England fans heading to UETA Euro 2024 this summer and encouraged them to smoke cannabis instead of downing pints. The Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen is set to serve low-alcohol beer in an attempt to keep potential trouble to a minimum but local police have another card up their sleeves: offering pot instead.

Instead of elevating emotions, potentially causing aggression and creating problems, pot induces a different, calmer state of mind—something that German police can deal with.

“It’s no problem for fans to smoke cannabis on the street,” a Gelsenkirchen Police spokesman told The Sun. “If we see a group of people drinking alcohol and looking a bit aggressive, and another group smoking cannabis, of course we’ll look at the group drinking alcohol. Drinking alcohol can make someone more aggressive, and smoking cannabis puts people in a chill mood. We want to prevent violence and keep people safe.”

“Our focus will be on fans who are drinking and potentially getting violent—that’s why we in place safety precautions on alcohol,” the spokesperson continued.

Chief Inspector Christof Burghardt told Sky News that he also agrees that England’s opening game will be “high-risk.”

“I think it’s a very high-risk game because of the history, because of the hooligans both sides have,” Burghardt said. “Serbia has many hooligans. The English guys, with alcohol, they are very aggressive. So it’s a great job to do this, to prepare, so that hopefully nothing will happen.’

He added: ‘The biggest challenge for us will be to identify violent, disruptive groups at an early stage, to separate them from peaceful and law-abiding fans.”

Germany Legalizes Cannabis for Personal Use

Earlier this year, Germany legalized cannabis for personal use. The German government in March adopted a bill to end the prohibition of cannabis for adults that will make possession and home cultivation of cannabis legal in the country, which began on April 1. 

The legislation, which also allows for the establishment of cannabis clubs, was given final approval in March in the Bundesrat, Germany’s legislative chamber representing the country’s 16 federal states. The bill has already been approved by the second chamber of parliament known as the Bundestag, which voted to pass the legislation earlier this year.

Under the limited legalization bill known as CanG, adults ages 18 and older will be permitted to possess up to 25 grams of cannabis and store up to 50 grams of it at home beginning on April 1. The measure also permits adults to grow as many as three cannabis plants at their residences. 

On July 1, Germany’s cannabis legalization plan kicked off, permitting non-commercial cannabis clubs, where members will have access to legally cultivated cannabis. Each cannabis club will be limited to no more than 500 members. The legislation does not include provisions that allow for-profit adult-use cannabis producers or retailers.

“The fight was worth it,” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wrote on X, according to a translation from Politico. “Please use the new option responsibly.”

“Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for the black market today,” he added. 

 The Bundesrat then voted to approve the plan to legalize cannabis in Germany, which will join Malta and Switzerland in the small group of European nations that have approved limited cannabis legalization plans.

With legal cannabis for adults, it provides another way to get inebriated at football events without causing too many problems. It’s a chance for British football fans to reestablish their reputation.

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Three years ago, police in a British city found that a pair of old buildings had been used as a massive cannabis growhouse. Now, those same facilities will be leveled to make way for housing for students. 

When life gives you lemons, right? 

BBC News reports that the “Southampton City Council approved plans for a 250-room student housing scheme at the site, which was raided by police in 2021.”

The two “derelict city centre buildings, which were once used as cannabis factories, will be destroyed to make way for student accommodation,” according to the BBC.

The BBC reported at the time of the raid that “1,782 plants were found…in two disused commercial properties on High Street and Castle Way,” and that two men who were “initially arrested on suspicion of producing Class B drugs, were now being treated as potential victims.”

“We know that a lot people will think, it’s just cannabis, but we want to stress that any production of drugs is linked to hidden harm. Large scale operations like this are often run by organised crime gang. Those gangs are likely to engage in very serious violence involving weapons, such as firearms. They may also take advantage of vulnerable people, exploiting them or making them work in servitude,” chief inspector Ricky Dhanda of the local constabulary said in a statement back then. 

“The electrical requirement to grow this many plants is also really dangerous and can be a huge fire risk, putting neighbouring properties, and lives in danger. It is not just cannabis, it’s linked to serious criminality. That’s why we are really keen to hear from people who suspect there is cannabis cultivation or drug related activity going on their neighbourhood. Every call you make to us is logged and helps us build up an intelligence picture about what might be happening in your community. This allows us to take action and prevent your neighbourhoods from harm.”

On Friday, the BBC reported that the vacant “three-storey and four-storey buildings fronting Southampton High Street and a former snooker hall on the Castle Way side will be bulldozed.”

More from the BBC: 

“The applicant, Big Sur, said the work ‘would introduce an active frontage back into the street scene on two city centre streets. It added it would ‘contribute a significant amount of student accommodation which has been demonstrated as an identified need within the city.’ Plans would see the creation of a five to six-storey main block with 249 student bedrooms in a mix of cluster flats, studios and accessible flats alongside a second smaller three-storey complex for eight student bedrooms. The Old Town Community Forum objected to the proposal, with particular issues over the density of the scheme, the long-term viability of student housing and the design of the buildings. One of the buildings to be replaced is the site of the former Castle Snooker Club, which first opened in 1970.”

The BBC added that one group, the Old Town Community Forum, “objected to the proposal, with particular issues over the density of the scheme, the long-term viability of student housing and the design of the buildings.”

2021 proved to be a big golden age for peculiar British busts. That same year, in London’s financial district, police there discovered a massive growhouse after responding to “reports of a strong smell of cannabis.”

“A significant ‘cannabis factory’ of 826 plants has been dismantled and destroyed by officers from the City of London Police,” the cops said at the time. “The initial discovery was made on the afternoon of Wednesday 13 January, following reports of a strong smell of cannabis, and a warrant was obtained to enter the premises on Thursday 14 January.”

Andy Spooner, the London detective who handled that investigation, said that the comparatively low amount of foot-traffic in the area at the time, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, may have played a role in the operation.

“This is the first cannabis factory in the City, no doubt being set up in response to fewer people being out and about during the pandemic who might have noticed any unusual activity,” Spooner said. “However, this demonstrates that City of London Police continues to actively police the Square Mile, bearing down on any crime committed here.” 

Then there was the discovery of a massive illicit grow operation made later in 2021 at a 17th century castle in Somerset. 

The Regina Leader-Post reported at the time that the owner of the castle, a “controversial British aristocrat” named Sir Benjamin Slade, “rented out Woodlands Castle in Somerset earlier this year.” 

“The castle is known locally as a high-end wedding venue and is situated just a few miles away from Slade’s other castle — an ancestral home that dates back to the 13th century. Woodlands has been closed for events since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the outlet reported then. “Slade had offered up the castle to the U.K. government to use as a medical facility at the height of the pandemic, but the proposal was evidently declined and he ended up renting out the property instead. So far, authorities believe he was unaware of any illegal activity being carried out on the property.”

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Kate Nicklin and Graham Mateer, the directors of Commonbond Architects, an architectural firm in London, work in a self-built studio located in the garden behind their bungalow.

Nicklin and Mateer had an additional motivation for the studio. As the website AJ Building Library explains, the couple wanted “to explore the potential of using hempcrete as a breathable biocircular building material.”

“The main idea behind the project was to create something that felt permanent and not like a standard lightweight timber shed,” Nicklin told Dezeen, which noted that, in addition to hempcrete, Commonbound Architects also “used reclaimed materials and a timber frame to create the cuboidal volume, which is topped with a mono-pitched roof.”

“Hempcrete offered an alternative construction which was good for self-building,” Nicklin added. “We like that it can be sourced in the UK and supports small-scale growers, we like that it creates a healthy environment to be in with no off-gassing and its breathable properties, that it sequesters carbon and is ultimately biodegradable.”

According to the Natural Building Alliance, a Colorado-based organization that champions natural building techniques, hempcrete is “a bio-composite building material that is created by coating and mixing particles of hemp hurd (also known as shiv – the inner woody core of a hemp plant) with water and lime and then allowing the materials to dry and harden into a natural insulation material.”

“Like traditional insulation, hempcrete can be the infill material to a wall structure or the insulation material for floors, ceilings, roofs, or windows. When it comes to walls that are framed using studs or heavy timbers, builders can use temporary formwork or permanent, permeable sheathing that is situated around framing to cast monolithic hempcrete walls,” the group explains. 

“Molding and casting walls involve a steady process of creating and mixing hempcrete in conjunction with a bucket brigade of helpers pouring, spreading, pressing, or tamping the hempcrete into formwork. Prior to casting and upon being dumped out of a mixer, hempcrete mixes typically look like crumbly oatmeal with no cohesion until builders squeeze and tamp the mixtures. When builders spread and press the mixture in formwork, they typically do it at a depth of four to eight inches at a time. When the formwork is full, the team of helpers can then remove and raise the slip forms for further assembly to complete the wall. For hempcrete installation that goes beyond the framing of one or both sides of the wall, builders can use spacers attached to the slip forms to extend the depth of the wall.”

Nicklin and Mateer began construction on the studio in May of 2020 and completed it last July. 

The RIBA Journal said that Nicklin and Mateer “had development in mind when, as project architects with 10 years’ experience at other firms, they bought the bungalow.” 

“We were always doing things on skinny little sites so we saw the potential,” Nicklin told the outlet. 

The RIBA Journal has more background on the studio:

“A decision taken even before the final form of the building was worked out was to use hempcrete, and the pair have become enthusiastic advocates for the biocircular material. Combined with a timber frame, it provides structure, breathable insulation and fireproofing, and is so easy to use that the architects could draft in equally unskilled friends to help, making for sociable construction. Outside, the vegetal walls are coated in thick gobs of lime render flicked on with a paint scraper and finished with many thin coats of chalky limewash. Laborious but economical, says Mateer, and another pragmatic choice for people with little hands-on building experience. It gives the small building with its overhanging, monopitch roof a soft but weighty character quite distinct from a typical garden shed. Rustic roughness is also melded with some refinement: oak-framed windows – with triangular mullions inspired by a medieval house at the Weald & Downland Museum – are beautifully made, again by the architects. Even so, stepping through oak doors at either end brings surprise. 

“Daylight fills the sunken rooms through garden-facing windows, set above built-in bench seating, from which ribbed oak wainscotting extends around the base of subtly textured painted hempcrete walls. Reflections from a pond dapple the soffit of the overhanging roof outside – a deliberate recreation of the effect produced by puddles on the balcony of the couple’s last flat. Small windows in the back wall are placed on the outside face to make the best of the west light.”

The studio is a testament to hemp’s versatility as a material –– whether for building supplies or consumer products. A company in Ohio signed a deal with a processor earlier this year to provide raw material for hemp-based bioplastics.

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The government of the United Kingdom has approved changes to the rules governing industrial hemp licenses designed to make it easier for farmers to grow the crop. The new regulations will support regulated farmers who grow hemp and encourage new investment in the industry while continuing to discourage illegal drug uses of the plant, government officials said this week.

In the U.K., industrial hemp (cannabis with less than 0.2% THC) can be legally grown outdoors by licensed farmers for the production of fiber and seed. Under the current rules, initial hemp cultivation licenses are issued for three growing seasons for a fee of £580 (about $727). License renewals cost £326 (approximately $409) and are also good for three years.

Under the new rules, which are slated to go into effect for the 2025 growing season, the length of time a hemp license is valid will be extended to six years. The amended regulations also allow farmers to apply for a hemp cultivation license with a deferred start date of up to one year, giving new growers more time to prepare for the new crop.

The new rules, which were developed in collaboration with experienced hemp growers, will also allow farmers to grow hemp anywhere on a licensed farm instead of limiting production to specific parcels of land. The change will give growers more flexibility in managing their operations and allow them to implement hemp into a crop rotation plan for their farms.

A Sustainable Crop for U.K. Farmers

The number of licensed hemp growers in the U.K. has increased significantly over the past 10 years, from only six in 2013 to 136 in 2023. Farming Minister Mark Spencer said in a statement that the new rules will give British farmers more opportunities to succeed by growing hemp.

“Industrial hemp has huge potential across the UK to unlock new revenue streams, expand our bioeconomy without permanently removing land from food production, and bring wider environmental benefits,” said Spencer, according to a report from FarmingUK.

“The licensing changes recognize industrial hemp as a field-grown agricultural crop and will enable more farmers to add hemp to their crop rotations,” he added.

Industrial hemp licenses do not allow farmers to utilize hemp flowers or leaves. Growers who wish to do so can obtain cannabis cultivation licenses, which allow for the indoor production of the plant for medicinal purposes. The dual licensing scheme is designed to allow for the cultivation of cannabis and hemp for permitted purposes while preventing drug misuse and protecting public safety.

“This government will always seek to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on businesses so that they can flourish and grow,” said Chris Philp, minister for crime and policing, the Farmers Guide reported on Wednesday. “The changes outlined today will help farmers and manufacturers in the UK to fully realize the economic potential offered through the safe and legal cultivation of hemp.”

The adoption of the new rules was supported by groups including the National Farmers Union (NFU). Jamie Burrows, chair of the NFU Combinable Crops Board, said in a statement that hemp agriculture can benefit farmers and the environment.

“It is one of the most sustainable crops farmers can grow, is a really good crop for capturing carbon from the atmosphere, has little to no input requirements and also has the ability to diversify farming businesses and crop rotations, especially when other break crops like oilseed rape are becoming more difficult for British farmers to grow due to increased pest pressure,” Burrows said this week.

The U.K. government has also requested that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs provide guidance on whether the permissible amount of THC in industrial hemp can be raised from 0.2% to 0.3%, the standard in the United States, Canada, China and the European Union. 

The government also noted that it expects the nation’s police to continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to cannabis possession. Under U.K. drug laws, possession of cannabis can be punished by a fine and jail sentence of up to five years, with harsher sentences of up to 14 years behind bars for cannabis distribution convictions.

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Due to a shortage in stimulant-based drugs for ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), the U.K.’s limited medical cannabis industry is seeing a spike in patients using cannabis for relief as an alternative. The exodus of patients resorting to medical cannabis shows its growing need.

The Guardian reported last September that doctors in England were told not to prescribe ADHD drugs to new patients because of a national shortage. The medications affected include four out of the five top stimulants prescribed to ADHD patients in the U.K.: methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine, guanfacine,  and atomoxetine.

It’s been compared to the Adderall (amphetamine/dextroamphetamine salts) shortage impacting the U.S. U.S. brand-name drug makers behind Adderall, Vyvanse and Concerta are able to keep up with the shortage, but the generic versions of all three drugs are struggling to keep up. Is it time to panic? Even with these shortages in medication, doctors still say ADHD is under-diagnosed and patients are under-prescribed.

Some of them are turning to cannabis. BBC reports that a medical cannabis clinic said the U.K.’s medical cannabis industry had seen an 86% increase in ADHD patients nationally over the last year.

Some people believe cannabis can alleviate many of the symptoms associated with ADHD as research advances.

Medical Cannabis Is Better Than No Medicine

Medical cannabis, when prescribed by a registered specialist doctor, was legalized in the U.K., mostly in the form of oils and flower, in November 2018. Since then, treatments, including medical cannabis, that meet “appropriate standards” have been reclassified under Schedule 2, meaning that they have medical value. And while the U.K. has very limited availability for medical use, exports are another story: the U.K. was the world’s largest exporter of legal cannabis in 2016.

Research director Dr. Simon Erridge, who also works at Curaleaf Clinic, said it was “natural for people to explore other options” amid the shortage.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) told the BBC that while there were no cannabis-based medicines licensed for the treatment of ADHD on the NHS, specialist clinicians “can prescribe cannabis-based products where clinically appropriate and in the best interests of patients.”

“Other ADHD products remain available but cannot meet excessive increases in demand,” the DHSC alert states. “At present, the supply disruptions are expected to resolve at various dates between October and December 2023.”

Suddenly losing access to a stimulant-based drug that patients rely on leaves them with few options.

“A lot of people with ADHD may try a number of different medications to find the one that works best for them, if that is suddenly taken away by shortages it’s only natural for people to explore other options and there’s no reason why that might not include medical cannabis,” Erridge said.

Cannabis for ADHD

Depending on the person, cannabis can both help and distract people from focusing.

A January 2020 study called “Cannabinoid and Terpenoid Doses are Associated with Adult ADHD Status of Medical Cannabis Patients” arrived at mixed results, finding that whole-plant cannabis seemed to be more effective.

“The use of purified THC:CBD in a 1:1 ratio (nabiximols) showed no effect on ADHD symptom severity; however, in a qualitative study, 25% of responses indicated that whole-plant cannabis was therapeutic for ADHD,” researchers wrote. “Here, we demonstrated an association between higher CBN and lower ADHD symptoms frequency. It has been previously demonstrated that the combination of CBN and THC is associated with increased psycho-activity of THC in humans. This indicates a more complex story than simply stratifying treatment based on THC and CBD alone.”

Researchers acknowledged that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to tackling ADHD when it comes to cannabis. 

“There is no ‘simplistic’ method for tracking only the dominant constituents of cannabis to better understand the medical potential of a cannabis cultivar,” researchers continued. “Thus, the novel perspective of our study is extremely valuable for the [medical cannabis] research field.”

Medical professionals who spoke to High Times for an October 2019 article agreed that ADHD treatments are not one-size-fits-all. Brooke Alpert is a licensed cannabis practitioner and founder of Daily Habit. Alpert touched on the correlation between CBD and ADHD. “The studies that focus on ADHD and CBD have shown some conflicting evidence.” 

She added, “I think more research needs to look at what relief people are finding with cannabis so we can have a better picture of how to further recommend CBD and cannabis for those with ADHD.”

Energizing strains like Sour Diesel, Jack Herer, Green Crack have been reported to actually have calming effects on people living with ADHD, even if they make others jittery.

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Attorneys for the Biden administration contend that Prince Harry’s admissions in his best-selling 2023 memoir, Spare, of using cannabis, cocaine, and magic mushrooms don’t necessarily prove the royal’s drug use. The lawyers suggested that he might have exaggerated these claims to boost book sales, the Telegraph reports. Such arguments come after Prince Harry’s immigration status is being pulled into question. 

This assertion comes in light of a case that a D.C. court is currently reviewing, which revolves around whether the U.S. government should be ordered to disclose Prince Harry’s visa application due to his use of illegal substances. DHS lawyers insist that releasing such paperwork, which would have inquired the shunned royal about his history of drug use, would be “an unwarranted invasion of Prince Harry’s privacy.”

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has been pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for several months to release these documents, citing the admissions made in his widely read memoir, Spare, as the basis for their argument. As High Times reported, The Heritage Foundation wants Prince Harry to be deported because he wrote about using drugs.

Spare also contains revelations such that William and Kate encouraged him to wear his infamous Nazi costume to a Native and Colonial–themed costume party in 2005, his body count while serving in Afghanistan (25), physical fights with William, and that he worked with a medium to try to get in touch with the ghost of his late mother, Princess Diana. 

In an effort to protect his privacy and immigration status, as well as those who helped him obtain such protected status, DHS attorney John Bardo informed the court that “the book does not constitute sworn testimony or evidence” confirming the Duke of Sussex’s actual drug use. “Just because it’s written in a book doesn’t mean it’s factual.”

Nile Gardiner, head of the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, dismissed the idea that the Duke had invented his drug use stories as a “preposterous argument.” “This is Prince Harry’s own book,” he remarked after the hearing. “He has never refuted any content in his book… that includes the detailed accounts of drug use.”

Perhaps the most “preposterous” takeaway is that one’s immigration status would come into question for indulging in recreational drugs. 

Per Newsweek, in Spare, Prince Harry wrote the following about enjoying cannabis: 

“I don’t remember how we got the stuff. One of my mates, I expect. Or maybe several. Whenever we found ourselves in possession, we’d commandeer a tiny upstairs bathroom, wherein we’d implement a surprisingly thoughtful, orderly assembly line. Smoker straddled the loo beside the window, second boy leaned against the basin, third and fourth boys sat in the empty bath, legs dangling over, waiting their turns. You’d take a hit or two, blow the smoke out of the window, then move on to the next station, in rotation, until the spliff was gone. Then we’d all head to one of our rooms and giggle ourselves sick over an episode or two of a new show. Family Guy. I felt an inexplicable bond with Stewie, prophet without honor.”

The court was informed that there are three potential methods by which the Duke could have entered the U.S.: either by falsifying his drug use on his immigration form, obtaining a waiver, or entering with a diplomatic visa.

At the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse hearing, Bardo said it was “entirely possible” that the Duke was granted entry into the U.S. on a “category A” visa, which is designated for diplomats and foreign officials visiting on official business. “He remains a part of the British Royal Family and retains the title of Duke,” Bardo noted.

Gardiner expressed skepticism about Prince Harry being deemed a diplomat, stating it was “highly unlikely” since “he had no official role on behalf of British people, his own relationship with the Royal family, that was at a low point as the judge himself actually referenced in his remarks.”

The Heritage Foundation previously contended that the ex-royal relinquished his privacy rights when he “sold every aspect of his private life for, in some estimates, over $135 million,” noting that his privacy claims have faced “widespread public ridicule.”

In Friday’s court hearing, Samuel Dewey, a lawyer for the Heritage Foundation, brought up the Duke’s recent appearance on Good Morning America earlier this month, where he mentioned he had thought about applying for U.S. citizenship. 

Back in October 2019, Prince Harry, along with his wife, Meghan Markle, who reportedly dealt with a ton of racism and hate while actively living in England as part of the royal family, moved to California, stating their intentions to step down within the royal family. While the Duchess, Megan, started applying for U.K. citizenship, she didn’t finish the process. Because she’s already a U.S. citizen, the couple’s kids have dual citizenship. Per U.S. immigration regulations, “any applicant who holds any titles of heredity or positions of nobility in any foreign country must renounce such title or position.”

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Although the United Kingdom (U.K.) legalized medical cannabis in 2018, it has not approved any clinical studies and is not widely available as a prescription through the country’s National Health Services (NHS).

A recent report from Sky News provided an update on the NHS, stating that no studies have been funded to help explore the efficacy of medical cannabis yet. However, U.K.-based Celadon Pharmaceuticals recently began a clinical trial featuring 5,000 patients who suffer from chronic pain.

Earlier this year in March, Celadon Pharmaceuticals became the first company in the U.K. to be licensed by the British government, called the Home Office, to sell its products to private clinics that are legally allowed to prescribe cannabis.

At first Celadon Pharmaceuticals conducted a preliminary study, examining 500 patients and found that cannabis did help reduce patients’ reliance on opioids, and also helped improve sleep. This past summer, both the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the NHS Research Ethics Committee approved of the larger Celadon clinical trial.

“As an approved Trial, it is believed to be the only one of its kind in the U.K., and is designed to create a data set that will support doctors’ prescriptions of cannabis-based medicines, and in time enable potential reimbursement by the NHS and insurance companies,” the company wrote in a press release this summer. “It also enables General Practitioners to prescribe the medicine to patients in addition to specialist doctors, and organisations such as charities can advertise recruitment for the Trial. The Company believes this to be a major advance in enabling much wider access for patients, ultimately leading to the opening up of the UK market for cannabis-based medicines.”

Celadon’s co-founder, James Short, more recently told Sky News that first and foremost, his business is a pharmaceutical company, not a cannabis company. “We’ve got to try and get away from the stigma. When I first got involved in the business I was nervous to even talk about it with friends,” Short said. “But our job is not to get people high. It’s to give them a better quality of life.”

Numerous patients, especially parents of young patients, have spoken out in favor of medical cannabis, and called the government to take action so that it could be more accessible and affordable for families. Hannah Deacon and her son Alfie Dingley, Emma Appleby and her daughter Teagan, Emma Matthews and her son Louis, Matt Hughes and his son Charlie, and Karen Gray and her son Murray from Scotland are just a few recognizable names of U.K.-based parents fighting for their kids’ rights to cannabis and an improved quality of life.

Families outside of the U.K. such as Irish mother Vera Twomey had called upon their own governments for improved treatment opportunities for her daughter, Ava, who suffered from Dravet syndrome. Sadly, Ava passed away earlier this year in May at age 13.

While there are many firsthand accounts of medical cannabis helping patients, U.K. doctors still remain hesitant. “In the aftermath of what happened with opioids the medical community is understandably a little bit skeptical about introducing a new drug without really robust evidence,” said NHS consultant and British Pain Society spokesperson, Dr. Alan Fayaz. “The opioid epidemic has perhaps done cannabis a bit of a disservice because it’s tainted ground.”

Furthermore, Fayaz said that the 2018 law change coming before clinical evidence was clear has been harmful to the cause. “It creates this bizarre two-tiered system which actually doesn’t advantage the patients on the NHS and it doesn’t really advantage the patients in the private sector either,” Fayaz explained. “I think what we need is the research to be able to identify the role cannabis will play.”

Currently only patients who manage a private prescription are able to gain access, which is incredibly expensive. Sky News spoke with Chad Martin, who pays £300 per month ($378 USD) to obtain medical cannabis to treat his arthritis. “I am fortunate to be able to afford the drug. Others can’t,” Martin explained. Initially his doctor prescribed opioids to treat his condition.

His cannabis medicine of choice is a cannabis inhaler, which helps treat pain and inflammation flare-ups. “When the weather changes, arthritis can affect you regardless, but cannabis has worked way better than anything else I’ve taken in the past,” Martin said.

The Home Office launched its cannabis review in June 2018. At the same time, the Home Secretary also announced that Alfie Dingley and Billy Caldwell would be granted a license to legally obtain cannabis to treat their conditions.
In 2019, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) decided that there wasn’t enough evidence that medical cannabis can help patients who suffer from epilepsy. Later in March 2021, NICE updated its 2019 stance on medical cannabis, clarifying that “There is no recommendation against the use of cannabis-based medicinal products.” Two years later in March 2023, NICE approved Epidyolex, a CBD-based medicine, for those who suffer from tuberous sclerosis complex.

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A California man has been extradited to the U.K. to face manslaughter  charges over the death of a woman at his 2016 slapping therapy workshop. 

An investigation was opened in October, 2016 when 71-year-old Danielle Carr-Gomm was found dead in her hotel room at Cleeve House in Seend, Wiltshire. Carr-Gomm had recently attended a paida lajin retreat, which is a form of therapy from China wherein a person vigorously slaps certain parts of the body in order to expel certain toxins from the blood. 

60-year-old Hongchi Xiao, a man from California who was in Australia at the time of his extradition, was held and questioned in the U.K. in 2016 along with two other men in relation to Carr-Gomm’s death.

“Hongchi Xiao, 60, of Cloudbreak, California, returned to the United Kingdom from Australia on an extradition warrant and has been taken to Gablecross custody in Swindon where he was charged. This relates to the death of Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, at Cleeve House in Seend in October 2016,” said local police to the Guardian. 

According to a BBC article on the subject of paida lajin, the head and joint areas of the patient are repeatedly slapped until they turn red or bruised. This is based around the ancient Chinese belief in “sha,” meaning that “toxins” from the blood vessels which appear during the course of paida lajin therapy in the form of redness or bruising at the slapping site are a sign of latent disease. Critics of this practice have pointed out, somewhat redundantly, that this is just the result of blood vessels breaking and skin bruising. 

According to ABC Australia, Xiao was previously investigated over the 2015 death of a seven-year-old diabetic boy in Sydney, Australia who had previously attended one of his workshops. Xiao received a 10-year sentence for his involvement in the boy’s death in 2019. An investigation revealed he told the boy’s parents that the boy would not need insulin or medical treatment for his diabetes if he attended the slapping therapy.

An Australian news outlet reported in 2022 that Xiao’s charges had been overturned after he appealed his case on the grounds that the evidence presented was inconsistent. He had served six years of his 10-year sentence at the time, and was out of jail a little over a year-and-a-half before his extradition 

Matthew Carr-Gomm, Danielle’s son, told the Guardian that his mother was diabetic but had difficulty injecting her insulin due to a fear of needles, thus leading her to seek holistic methods to treat her ailments. 

“She was always keen to try and find alternative methods of treating and dealing with her diabetes and was very interested in alternative and holistic medicine and therapies. I know she was desperate to try and cure herself of this disease. She always maintained a healthy lifestyle and was adamant that nothing would stop her from living a full life,” Matthew said. “In recent years, mum was in a great place with a partner, a lovely home, and was traveling the world. She had a lot of life left in her.”

A BBC reporter with a knee injury actually reported on her firsthand experience attending a paida lajin workshop in 2015, though she was actually beaten with bamboo sticks instead of slapped. 

“He felt around my knee for where he thought the “little clots” were and without warning, forcefully whacked my knee. He aimed for exactly the same spot each time. It was excruciating. I yelled in surprise. The bruises turned purple quickly and minutes later, I had to halt the blows,” said BBC reporter Pamela Koh. “The beating needed to continue for at least 20 minutes to be effective, I was told. I gritted my teeth between the sharp, swift blows but I had to tell him to stop. He resumed until it became unbearable again and I tried to sit through the full 20 minutes of pain.”

Incidentally, Koh reported that her knee eventually did get better but that the bruises took weeks to heal properly and she was unsure if her knee got better because of the therapy or because of the body’s natural ability to heal. A video of Xiao demonstrating paida lajin therapy can be found at this handy dandy little hyperlink. He was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence upon his return to the U.K. It was not immediately clear how much prison time he faced if convicted. 

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Conor Ryder, from Dorset, England, a man living with Tourette syndrome, is urging the government to make medicinal cannabis more accessible through the National Health Service (NHS), the BBC reports. Currently, he spends thousands on prescriptions from a private clinic as it’s the only treatment, in his experience, that effectively manages his severe tics. The NHS is the U.K.’s publicly funded healthcare system.

Medical marijuana became legal in the U.K. in 2018. But the government insists they need more research to ensure its safety before making it more widely available. 

Cannabis remains illegal on a federal level and for adult use. 

Due to the scarce availability of NHS prescriptions, Ryder pays £300 every month, which, to afford, he dips into his savings. 

“I spoke to my doctor and he said that he… didn’t want to refer me, so I went and referred myself off. I went and looked at the clinics,” Ryder told the BBC. 

Ryder’s situation isn’t unique. Private cannabis clinics across the United Kingdom have grown substantially since legalization, with statistics indicating they’ve issued over 140,000 prescriptions in the past five years. The medicine they sell just isn’t always affordable for patients like Ryder. 

As research published in June of 2023 suggests, building on additional research that also indicates cannabis for the condition, evidence backs up what Ryder says, indicating that THC and CBD can improve the side-effect profile of Tourette syndrome. These include repetitive movements or unwanted sounds (tics) that one can’t always control — and can disrupt one’s personal and professional life. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, tics usually appear between the ages of two and 15, with the average age around six. Tourette syndrome is more commonly seen in males, who are about three to four times more likely to develop it than females.

In this study, they did a double-blind, cross-over trial with people who have severe Tourette’s syndrome. Using random assignment, they gave participants an oral oil-based tincture with increasing amounts of THC and CBD for six weeks, followed by six weeks with a placebo, or the other way around, with a four-week break in between. 

The researchers used the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) to measure their tics’ severity. They also used video assessments of tics to assess how they affected their daily life, anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. 

It’s worth noting that all of these comorbidities are also often treated with medical marijuana. 

They then checked if the results were related to the levels of cannabis compounds in the blood in addition to performing cognitive tests at the start and end of each treatment.

The results suggest that people in the active treatment group significantly reduced their tic scores more than those in the placebo group. This means that the treatment with THC and CBD helped reduce the severity of their tics. However, some people in the active treatment group reported problems with their thinking, memory, and concentration. The research indicates that cannabinoids such as THC and CBD can help people with severe Tourette syndrome by reducing their tics and improving their quality of life. 

Mr. Ryder is not surprised to learn that the private sector of the cannabis industry is booming. For him, medical marijuana has become an absolute necessity. Diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at age 13, he lives with various noticeable tics, from animal-like sounds and loud bangs to physical gestures like winking, blinking, and shoulder rolling.

These tics cause him significant distress and currently make him unable to hold down a job, further compounding his struggle to pay for his medicine in a vicious cycle. But he’s able to manage his symptoms with medical marijuana and a vaporizer. 

“It’s something I dreamed of as a kid, taking a small pill and it would just disappear, and now I have it basically. I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to work and maybe be able to manage it because that’s the only way if it doesn’t become available on the NHS. Every medication that they’ve been able to give me, they’ve made me into basically a zombie. Cannabis is the only thing that controls the tics,” he tells the BBC. 

The Department of Health and Social Care says that medical marijuana could be paid for by the NHS where there was “clear evidence of their quality, safety and effectiveness,” the BBC reports. “It is important to carefully review evidence on unlicensed cannabis-based treatments to ensure they are proved safe and effective before they can be considered for roll-out on the NHS more widely.” 

An NHS spokesperson continued that: “While there is limited evidence on the safety of these unlicensed products, we continue to encourage manufacturers of these products to engage with the UK medicines regulator, which would provide doctors with the confidence to use the products in the same way they use other licensed medicines.”

There are currently over 300,000 kids and adults living with Tourette Syndrome in the U.K.

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A woman arrested in Dublin, Ireland for cannabis smuggling allegedly told the authorities she did not break any laws intentionally as she thought she was merely transporting a suitcase full of handbags.

According to a report by the Irish Examiner, Yejieda Johnson, a 26-year-old London woman, was arrested at Dublin Airport over the weekend with 37 kilograms of cannabis and charged with unlawful importation and possession of drugs/having them for sale or supply. 

Irish authorities, known as the “Garda Síochána” estimated the street value of the cannabis to be around €740,000 or just under $800k USD (though anyone with access to a calculator or 4th grade math skills can figure out the bulk price on all that is probably closer to $80k even in Europe).

According to the Examiner, Garda Tom McLoughlin appeared in court to advocate against bail for Johnson. McLoughlin alleged that Johnson had been “caught in the act” of a “very deliberate attempt to conceal 37 kg of cannabis.” McLoughlin stated during cross-examination that Johnson insisted she had been carrying handbags and “never touched” any cannabis. 

McLoughlin went on to claim that Johnson was a “clear and immediate flight risk,” due to her lack of an Irish home address or family connections in the area. Johnson allegedly departed from John F. Kennedy airport in New York City and was supposed to get a connecting flight from Dublin to her home in London on Saturday.

The Examiner Report went on to indicate that Johnson maintained her innocence to the court, pleading for bail. Johnson told the court she had lived in London all her life and currently lived with family members. She told the court she was a mother of one and had previously worked in a hotel spa and coffee shop though she was unemployed at the time of the hearing. She swore to the court she would return to Ireland and prove her innocence. 

“I have no reason not to come back, I’m innocent,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know what was in those cases. I will not run off or anything like that. I’m innocent, I’m not a criminal.”

According to another report in Sunday World, defense barrister Karl Monahan argued for bail, saying that Johnson could wait in Irish prison for up to two years before her actual trial began. He also argued the street value and exact nature of the drugs had yet to be officially established, which could explain the wildly high figure mentioned above (I did the math and even dimed out at $10 a gram it’s only $367k).

Oddly enough, another woman flying from Amsterdam to Dublin was also arrested at Dublin Airport the same day with a suitcase containing 10 kilograms of ketamine. Authorities did not indicate that there was any reason to believe the incidents were related, but they did indicate the ketamine had a street value of €600,000 which actually might be kind of low if you sold it by the gram, but I digress.

The following quote was given to the Irish Mirror by a Garda spokesperson:

“Gardaí arrested two women on Saturday 2nd September 2023 as part of two separate seizures made by Revenue officers at Dublin Airport. The seizures comprised 37kgs of herbal cannabis, worth an estimated €740,000, and approximately 10kgs of suspected ketamine worth €600,000. Two women in their 20s were arrested by Gardaí and later detained. They have since been charged with regards to these separate seizures, and appeared before the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin this morning, Monday, 4th September 2023.”

A spokesperson for Revenue also told the Irish Mirror “The illicit drugs were discovered when Revenue officers stopped and searched the baggage of passengers who had disembarked flights from New York and Amsterdam.”

Yejieda Johnson was ultimately granted bail for €1,000 plus an additional €10,000 surety. She would also be required to leave her London address, phone number and other such assurances that she would return to Ireland for trial. She was remanded back into Irish custody until she appears again in court on September 11.

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