ACMD reply IC-494733-Z9F5 filed 20 April 2026 letter undated

Authority case reference: IC-494733-Z9F5

ACMD evidence and current review

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Dear Pete Lindsay (cc Information Commissioner’s Office)  
Thank you for your e-mail dated 12th January 2026. We are sorry for providing a late 
response as owing to email quarantine, your request was not seen until the Information 
Commissioner’s Office had contacted us directly.   
Your request has been handled as a request for information under the Freedom of 
Information Act 2000 (FOIA). 
1. Understanding of commission scope and limits  
Please see ACMD advice of 19 July 2018 on how ACMD understood the scope of 
the July 2018 commission. No information held on other components of the question.  
 
2. Route of administration and smoking  
Please see EMCDDA’s report: “Cannabis legislation in Europe: an overview” which 
refers to reasons why “no country authorises the smoking of cannabis for medical 
purposes”  
Route of administration was referred to on Page 7 in the ACMD advice of 11 
September 2018, where it says “The ACMD does not anticipate that smoking will be 
a permissible route of administration of a CDMP as there is evidence of harms 
associated with smoking Cannabis”, with this associated reference: Lee, M. and 
Hancox, R. J. (2011) ‘Effects of smoking cannabis on lung function’, Expert Review 
of Respiratory Medicine, 5:4, pp 537–547. 
No information held on other components of the question.  
 
3. Awareness of criminal law consequences  
No information held.  
 
4. Scientific advice vs policy implementation  
No information held.  
 
5. Emergency and self-administration contexts  
No information held.

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6. Equality and vulnerable cohorts  
No information held.  
 
7. Engagement with or commentary on the Explanatory Memorandum and/or 
impact assessment accompanying SI 
No information held. 
 
8. Post-implementation review and scope constraints 
Please see ACMD advice of 23 December 2019 and 27 November 2020 for ACMD’s 
role post-implementation. No information held on other components of the question.  
 
9. Section 12 safeguards 
Section 12 of the FOI Act was not engaged in compiling this response.  
 
Yours sincerely, 
ACMD Secretariat