Access Medical Cannabis with T21

Before:

You will need to make sure that you meet the eligibility criteria of your chosen clinic and inform them that you wish to participate in T21 before your first appointment with a clinician (we also recommend you remind your clinician at your first appointment).

During:

Most appointments are done virtually, although some clinics do also offer face-to-face. The doctor will work with you to complete an initial assessment and questionnaire to establish your existing condition, symptoms, any previous/current medications or therapies and any history of cannabis use. It is up to the doctor to decide whether to prescribe medicinal cannabis products based on this initial assessment – attending a consultation does not guarantee a medical cannabis prescription will be issued.

After:

Your prescription will be couriered to you in the post once payment has been made to the dispensing pharmacy as advised by your clinic. Your clinic will decide how often you need to see a doctor or nurse and advise you of any follow-up appointment schedule – this is a minimum of once every three months. Your data will be collected every three months via emails from Sail, our data collection system for the project. You must fill out these questionnaires and attend your follow-up consultations in order to remain with T21.

Patients registered with T21 benefit from a minimum 5% discount off all products included on the T21 Formulary. Prescription costs are determined by the producers and dispensing pharmacies. Please speak to your clinician should you require any further details on pricing. You have the right to refuse the prescription if you’re unable or unwilling to pay. Consultation and repeat prescription costs are set by the clinic – simply view our clinics to find out their prices.

The T21 formulary includes a range of indica & sativa flower products with varying CBD & THC ratios as well as a number of different oils. These are produced by our project partners:

• Canopy Growth
• Cellen Therapeutics
• Ethypharm
• Grow Pharma
• Khiron Life Sciences
• JMCC Group 

A ‘licensed medicine’ is a medicine that has a marketing authorisation from the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or European Medicines Agency (EMA), enabling it to be prescribed in the UK. Because whole plant cannabis-based medicines are currently ‘unlicensed‘, it makes it very difficult for producers to provide detailed product information and price lists due to the strict ‘marketing’ restrictions. Producers cannot state any claims about its benefit for medical conditions, the required dose or how to take it. Your doctor or dispensing pharmacist can answer questions on dosage and administration.

We are aware that the T21 formulary might not suit all patients. This is why clinicians are free to prescribe a product outside of our formulary if a T21 product is deemed unsuitable. Your data can still be collected and submitted into our registry and you will still be part of the project – so you can still help us get closer to our goal of NHS access.

During the initial appointment with your clinician, you must inform them of your intention to participate in T21. Providing you are then prescribed products from the T21 Formulary, your clinician will then notify the dispensing pharmacy so a 5% minimum discount can be applied to your prescription. If you have reason to believe that the discount has been missed from your prescription cost, please speak to your clinician before making any payments. You can also email the T21 team at twenty21@drugscience.org.uk.

We recommend reading the advice from PLEA on How to Get Started with Medical Cannabis Flower and Oil. The only medically licensed vaporisers available in the UK are the Mighty and the Volcano from Storz & Bickel. You can get a 10% discount on these devices through the Newgrove Pharmacy website if you are participating on T21 – please ask your clinician for the discount code or email the T21 team at twenty21@drugscience.org.uk.

No. You can specify the pharmacy you would like to use to dispense your prescription, however, this might incur additional charges. We help T21 prescribers understand which pharmacies do not add any extra costs.

You can be prescribed any medical cannabis product available in the UK and still take part in T21. The cost of your product will be determined by its producer. If you wish to benefit from the T21 discount, you can ask your clinician if there is a suitable equivalent product listed on the T21 Formulary onto which you could move.

All T21 Clinics that are participating in the study are listed here. Please email us at twenty21@drugscience.org.uk if a member of clinic staff has told you otherwise. If your clinic is not listed as a T21 participant, you will soon be able to take part in T21 as we plan to change the way in which we collect patient data. Stay tuned to the T21 newsletter for updates.

Yes. We understand that sometimes it is necessary for patients to move to a different clinic. Visit this page to choose a new clinic, then contact the new clinic making it clear that you’re already with T21 and which clinic you need to be moved over from. Your new clinic will need written confirmation from you before they notify our technical team to move your data across smoothly.

Read your rights as a patient to changing clinic. 

Your data is collected through questionnaires that are sent out via email every three months by our data collection system, Sail. It is then anonymised for analysis by the Drug Science team. We use this data to publish monthly figures and data insights in the T21 newsletter, as well as more detailed research which we publish in medical and scientific journals to help influence policy change.

T21 is the only cannabis registry that is independent of prescribers and clinics, so our research findings cannot be inappropriately influenced by commercial interests. Our findings, therefore, carry more weight towards a future NHS acceptance of medical cannabis than those from alternative, commercially-associated clinics.

Last year, we published data on the characteristics of Chronic Pain patients on T21. Before that, we demonstrated through T21 data that medical cannabis improves Quality of Life by over 50%. In addition to peer-reviewed papers, we publish monthly data nuggets which offer a quick deep dive into what we’re finding in the data. Founding member of T21, Khiron Life Sciences, has published two peer-reviewed papers focusing on patients prescribed Khiron products to treat chronic pain, anxiety and personality disorders.

Yes. You can give your data to multiple registries at the same time – this shouldn’t affect your participation in T21.

Drug Science T21 team – we’re only a small team so we’re unable to answer every email we receive, but if your query cannot be answered by a clinic or one of the organisations below, you can email us at twenty21@drugscience.org.uk

Medical Cannabis Patients Association (MCPA) – hopes to create awareness and to educate everyone about the benefits of cannabis based prescribed medicines.

Seed our Future – a national movement that uses non-violent civil disobedience in an attempt to bring about mass awareness of the unsubstantiated laws and regulations surrounding the Cannabis plant and how this affects us all

Medcan Family Foundation – an educational hub for parents and carers looking to learn more about cannabis and how it could potentially help their children. It taps into the latest research and is in collaboration with the world leaders in cannabis use for paediatric care.

Release – the team at Release provides free non-judgmental, specialist advice and information to the public and professionals on issues related to drug use and to drug laws. Helpline: 020 7324 2989 or email: ask@release.org.uk