The Law Around the World
How you can legally get medical cannabis depends entirely on where you are. Here's the UK in detail, then a snapshot of the rest of the world.
Medical cannabis is one of the most misreported corners of cannabis law. A legal medical route exists in a growing number of countries, but "legal" and "actually able to get it" are two very different things. This page lays out the UK in full first, then steps back to how medical access compares around the world. It doesn't recommend cannabis as a treatment for anything. Whether a CBPM is right for someone is a decision for that person and a specialist doctor.
The UK: what changed in 2018
After a run of high-profile cases involving children with severe epilepsy, the government moved cannabis-based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) to Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations. From 1 November 2018, specialist doctors could legally prescribe them (House of Commons Library).
Be clear about what this did and didn't do. It created a controlled medical route, prescribed and dispensed like any other Schedule 2 medicine. It did not legalise cannabis generally: recreational use, possession and supply remain Class B offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act (see The Law). Having a prescription is lawful; buying the same plant on the illegal market is not.
Who can prescribe
This is the detail most people get wrong. A CBPM can only be prescribed by a specialist doctor on the GMC's Specialist Register: a hospital consultant, or someone under their direct supervision. A GP cannot prescribe it, or even initiate one (NHS). The specialist also has to judge that there's a genuine clinical need that ordinary licensed medicines haven't met. It isn't a first-line option. (Which products are licensed versus unlicensed is covered on What It Is.)
NHS vs private: the access gap
In principle CBPMs are available on the NHS. In practice they're almost never prescribed there beyond the three licensed medicines. Government reporting counted around 5,000 NHS community prescriptions for licensed cannabis-based medicines in 2023, and only a handful of NHS prescriptions for unlicensed CBPMs since the law changed (House of Commons Library). The NHS says plainly that "very few people in England are likely to get an NHS prescription for medical cannabis" (NHS).
So nearly everyone using an unlicensed CBPM does so through a private clinic, paying for an initial specialist consultation, follow-ups, and the medication on repeat, which commonly runs to a few hundred pounds a month depending on the product and dose. That's stated as the reality of access, so nobody's caught out by it. It isn't an endorsement of any clinic or a suggestion it's a route worth taking.
Driving, work and travel
Driving. A statutory "medical defence" exists for driving after taking a lawfully prescribed medicine, provided you follow the prescribing advice and your driving isn't actually impaired. It can apply to prescribed cannabis, but the area is genuinely complex, and prescribed patients have still been stopped and, in some cases, prosecuted. If you drive on a CBPM: keep evidence of your prescription with you, don't drive if you feel affected, and get proper advice rather than assuming you're covered. The roadside test and the 2µg/L limit are on The Law.
Work. A prescription doesn't automatically override an employer's drug-and-alcohol policy, and THC from a CBPM shows up on a standard workplace drug test the same as any other cannabis. If your job involves testing, especially safety-critical roles, raise it openly with occupational health or HR rather than being caught out.
Travel. Within the UK, keep a CBPM in its original packaging with the dispensing label and prescription details to hand. Taking it abroad is a different matter: many countries prohibit cannabis-based medicines entirely regardless of a UK prescription, so always check the destination, and any transit countries, well before you travel. Which brings us to the wider picture.
Medical access around the world
A legal medical route now exists in a growing number of countries, but how easy it is to actually get varies enormously, from established national programmes to narrow, emerging or non-existent ones. Here's an honest snapshot of a selection, graded by how accessible the medical route is. This is about medical access specifically. For recreational law country by country, see Where Cannabis Is Legal.
Established medical programmes
A national route exists and is reasonably accessible by prescription, though the conditions covered and the cost still vary.
Germany
EstablishedMedical since 2017. Cannabis was removed from the narcotics law in 2024 and prescriptions rose sharply. From 2025 the government is tightening the online/telemedicine route, but access stays broad.
Canada
EstablishedA medical programme has run since 2001, now alongside fully legal adult use.
Australia
EstablishedLegal nationwide by prescription since 2016, with a large patient base through authorised prescribers.
Israel
EstablishedOne of the oldest and most developed medical-cannabis programmes in the world.
Netherlands
EstablishedA state-run programme has supplied pharmacy-dispensed medical cannabis since 2003.
United States
State by stateThere's no federal programme, since cannabis is still federally illegal, but around 38 states run their own medical-cannabis programmes.
Limited or emerging access
A medical route exists but is narrow, new, expensive, or hard to access in practice.
United Kingdom
Rare on NHSLegal since 2018, but very rarely prescribed on the NHS. Nearly all patients access it through private clinics (see above).
France
Rolling outAfter a pilot that ran to 2024, France is moving to a formal medical framework. Access is still limited and being rolled out.
Ireland
Narrow listA Medical Cannabis Access Programme covers a short list of conditions, with a separate ministerial-licence route for others.
Poland
PharmacyMedical cannabis has been legal since 2017, dispensed through pharmacies, with access gradually widening.
Switzerland
ExpandingSince 2022 doctors can prescribe without a special federal permit, and access is expanding.
Thailand
Medical onlyAfter a brief decriminalised era, cannabis was restricted back to medical use only in 2025. A prescription is now required.
No legal medical route
No general medical-cannabis programme, and in some places the penalties for cannabis are severe.
Japan
No programmeLong prohibited. A 2024 law change allows a few cannabis-derived medicines while still criminalising use, but there is no general programme.
Russia
IllegalIllegal, with no medical-cannabis programme.
Singapore
SevereIllegal, with some of the strictest drug laws in the world and no ordinary medical route.
A snapshot, not legal advice. This covers a selected set of countries, reviewed September 2026. Medical-cannabis laws, and how they work in practice, change frequently and can differ by region and condition. Always check the current rules where you are before relying on any of it. We'll add more countries over time.
Where to get the facts
For authoritative, up-to-date UK information, start with the NHS guide to medical cannabis, NICE guideline NG144, and the House of Commons Library briefing. If you think a CBPM might be relevant to a health condition, that's a conversation to have with a doctor, not something to act on from any website, this one included.