Justice by Design — where medicine, law and equality meet
People moving through public life
Patient-led research

Law, justice and equality for prescribed cannabis patients.

A lawful medicine should come with usable care and accountable decisions.

Justice by Design examines how law, policy and institutional practice affect people using prescribed cannabis medicine.

Explore the researchThe patient journeyFind patient support
Cannabis news
The parliamentary account

Government materially
misled Parliament.

The ban was disclosed. Its new criminal burden within lawful treatment was presented as continuity.

Follow the evidence

What officials knew.
What ministers chose.
What Parliament was told.

AdvicePatient benefit recognised
DecisionPersonal restriction chosen
LawAn additional patient burden
AccountPresented as continuity
Prescribing and the evidence gap

Prescribing at scale.
Patients still missing from the picture.

1,792,723

Private prescription items for unlicensed cannabis medicines, dispensed in England on prescriptions dated 2025.

Items, not a count of patients or smoking episodes.

What gets counted?

An item records a product appearing on a prescription form. NHSBSA’s separate response explains why it cannot reliably count distinct private patients.

Explore the figures and their limits
The clinical relationship

Safe care depends on
honest conversations.

A clinician needs to know how medicine is actually used. Fear of criminal exposure or losing treatment can put pressure on that conversation.

The patient

Can I explain what happens without fear of losing appropriate care?

↔

The clinician

Can I hear an accurate account, review the reasons and agree a workable plan?

The report examines the legal and professional pressures around disclosure and continuing care.

Follow the clinical evidence

Different questions.
A place to begin.

Choose the priorities that matter to you. Each audience has its own route through the wider research.

Patients and families

Patients and families

Treatment, recognition and the practical continuity of care.

Lawyers and policy professionals

Lawyers and policy professionals

Legal design, decision-making and institutional accountability.

Clinicians and the medical sector

Clinicians and the medical sector

Clinical practice, usable information and patient needs.

01

The decision timeline

Who advised, decided and explained the rule—and when the records became available.

Follow the decisions
02

The system around the patient

See how prescribing, regulation, enforcement and continuing care meet.

Explore the system
The interim report · V3 · 26 October 2026

Discrimination
by Design.

A last resort medicine and an additional crime.

The law, ministerial decision and institutional record behind the extra offence for smoking lawfully prescribed cannabis medicine.

Read the reportReport and source downloads
Discrimination by Design V3 report cover

From the research desk.

Source explainers, ongoing questions and substantive developments.

From our LinkedIn.

Questions, observations and conversations from Justice by Design.