Medical cannabis: London clinics see rise in patients

One patient taking the drug for chronic pain is Julie Gould, from Wimbledon in south London.

The 64-year-old started using medical cannabis in 2020 after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in her 30s.

“I’ve got permanent damage. My walking’s affected, my bowel, my bladder is affected,” she says, comparing one of her symptoms to someone “hammering your brain with an ice-pick”.

She used paracetamol and ibuprofen to relieve the pain until her neurologist prescribed her with amitriptyline, a pain medication also used as an antidepressant.

But the drug aggravated the symptoms of another condition – restless legs syndrome (RLS), which causes an “unpleasant crawling or creeping sensation” in the legs.

Ms Gould wants the drug to be “heavily subsidised”, adding that it’s become “too expensive for most people”, especially if they need to take it more regularly to manage their symptoms.