The UK’s medical cannabis sector faces a critical shortage of qualified prescribers, leaving thousands of patients unable to access potentially life-changing treatments. Curaleaf and the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society have formed an ambitious Cannabis Education Alliance to tackle this pressing healthcare gap. The partnership targets a fundamental problem: many healthcare professionals lack the specialized knowledge needed to safely prescribe cannabis-based medicines for conditions ranging from chronic pain to treatment-resistant epilepsy. This educational initiative could reshape patient access nationwide.
Private prescriptions for cannabis-based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) surged 130% between 2023 and 2024, reaching 346,000 items dispensed as the UK’s medical cannabis sector experiences rapid expansion alongside growing concerns about prescribing standards.
The dramatic growth trajectory continues with monthly private prescription numbers showing a 20% increase in January 2024 compared to December 2023, while leading clinics report prescription volumes compounding at over 15% month-on-month.
The sector’s explosive growth has created significant regulatory challenges, with 20–30 private clinics now operating under CQC regulation contributing to what began as a tenfold increase in CBPM prescriptions between 2020 and 2021.
This expansion has been further supported by platforms like Script Assist, which processes over 12,000 prescriptions monthly, highlighting the infrastructure developments accompanying market growth.
However, the Care Quality Commission has identified substantial gaps in clinical justification and oversight practices across the private sector.
Private clinics currently prescribe CBPMs for a very wide range of conditions, with poor evidence to justify use for many indications.
Over 90% of prescriptions target chronic pain, anxiety, and neurological conditions such as MS and epilepsy, yet regulatory bodies stress the need for clinicians to demonstrate unmet clinical need before prescribing CBPMs.
The Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society has established completion and failure of two accepted, evidence-based treatments as a minimum standard, though legal stipulations regarding alternative treatments remain unclear.
This ambiguity has prompted calls for a full sector review and clearer regulations to guide prescriber decisions and establish consistent justification standards across the industry.
Current prescribing authority remains restricted to specialist doctors, with general practitioners unable to issue initial prescriptions for unlicensed CBPMs under NHS guidelines.
The MCCS released Good Practice Guidelines for CBPM prescribing in 2025, emphasizing completeness of prior treatments and clinical judgment while working to introduce evidence-based eligibility criteria that would standardize patient pathways.
CQC reports have highlighted additional oversight gaps, including inadequate communication of treatment plans to other healthcare professionals and problems with non-compliance to advertising rules related to CBPM promotion. The MHRA enforces promotional content compliance strictly, with regulatory scrutiny applying to all actors in the CBPM value chain.
These issues underscore the need for providers to retain proper patient oversight and involve appropriate GMC specialists in multidisciplinary team meetings.
The regulatory landscape faces additional complexity as current law allows prescription of CBPMs for any condition if reasonable basis exists and standard licensed medicine routes have been exhausted.
This broad framework, while enabling clinical flexibility, has contributed to the wide variation in prescribing practices observed across private clinics.
Despite fewer than five NHS patients receiving unlicensed and private licensed medical cannabis prescriptions monthly, the private sector’s dominance continues expanding.
Industry stakeholders are pushing to clarify prescription benchmarks and reconcile regulatory guidance with clinical practice, while the MHRA maintains restrictions on CBPM exports despite the UK’s position as a global leader in cannabis exports for non-CBPM products.
The proposed sector review aims to establish clearer requirements for private providers, potentially improving regulatory clarity and patient safety standards. The government has commissioned a review of the legal framework for CBPMs following calls for a multi-agency review led by the Department of Health to include relevant bodies such as MHRA, Home Office, and GMC.
