A new UK-wide service supporting medical cannabis patients who face discrimination has launched to fill gaps left by the absence of systematic government support.
Patient Protect was founded by patient advocate Alex Fraser and cannabis lawyer Robert Jappie, who have handled cases on a pro-bono basis for several years.
The service provides guidance, advocacy, and case support for patients encountering issues across policing, employment, housing, and driving-related matters, aiming to collate incidents nationally to build a legal evidence base for systemic reform.
Where formal legal representation is required, Patient Protect can refer patients to specialist firms. It also works with a law firm experienced in group litigation, meaning where multiple patients face similar issues involving the same organisation or authority, cases may be coordinated and pursued collectively.
The project is structured as a paid subscription service for clinics, with costs scaled to the number of active cases to ensure smaller clinics have access to a lower-cost option while larger ones contribute proportionately.
Clinics can subscribe until 31 March, after which the service will operate free of charge. Patients can report incidents regardless of their clinic’s subscription status, with those reports contributing to Patient Protect’s national evidence base and potentially informing future group legal action.
READ MORE: Inside the Medical Cannabis Police Guidance: Everything Patients Need to Know
It is the latest industry-led initiative to provide support for medical cannabis patients amid a continued lack of top-down efforts to educate law enforcement, medical professionals, landlords, employers, and other officials likely to encounter patients and their prescriptions.
Fraser, Co-Founder, said: “What we see again and again is that when these issues are discussed clearly and responsibly, and when patients are given somewhere they trust to report what’s happened to them, cases start coming out of the woodwork.
“That tells us the problem is far bigger than any one clinic or any one patient. I’m a Crohn’s patient, I’m prescribed medical cannabis myself, and I’ve been a cannabis activist long before the law changed in 2018. I’m not separate from this. I’m as exposed to these risks as any other patient. Patient Protect exists because
patients deserve protection, clarity, and a fair system that actually works for them.”
As we’ve covered in detail over the past few months, the UK’s patient community continues to face discrimination on multiple fronts, largely due to a lack of education and knowledge.
Progress is finally being made, however. In January, over seven years after medical cannabis was legalised in the UK, the National Police Chiefs’ Council approved the first official guidance for medical cannabis.
While its authors readily admit this is ‘not a complete answer’, it marks a critical first step, openly recognising that there are glaring knowledge and education gaps within law enforcement and extending a welcome olive branch to patients and industry to work towards a standardised approach.
Richard List QPM, a retired Detective Chief Superintendent and head of the Drugs Squad who authored the guidance, told Business of Cannabis: “In a liberal democracy, if you’re a patient and you’ve had a controlled drug that’s legitimately prescribed by a doctor, you shouldn’t have to worry about any interference from the police.”
Fraser is understood to have contributed to this guidance, and this latest initiative marks an unofficial and much-needed evolution of the progress now being seen.
However, these remain the first steps in tackling the issue. As Co-Founder Jappie points out, basic education throughout UK institutions could make a considerable difference.
“Many of the cases we see involve clear misunderstandings of the law. Often, matters can be resolved by properly setting out a patient’s legal position.
The deeper issue is that these cases keep happening in isolation. By collating them in one place, Patient Protect allows us to support individuals while also addressing discrimination collectively and preventing repeat failures.”
Patients can report incidents regardless of their clinic’s subscription status, with reports contributing to Patient Protect’s national evidence base. The service does not provide in-court legal representation.
Patients can report incidents here: www.patientprotect.co.uk.
