A British mother has decided to take drastic measures to save her epileptic son’s life. After the UK Nation Health Services cut off her child’s access to cannabis-based medication, Charlotte Caldwell is now preparing to smuggle medical marijuana into the country.
Caldwell’s fight to provide her son Billy with lifesaving medical marijuana has been well documented over the past few months. Initially she had traveled to the US to receive a prescription for the medicine that has helped control Billy’s numerous seizures. Shortly afterward, she found a physician in the UK who agreed to provide Billy with that medication. But recently the Home Office threatened to reprimand that physician if they continued to provide that medicine.
So Caldwell is turning to the only avenue she sees left open to her—smuggling. Soon, she will be returning to the UK from a trip to Canada, where she has secured a six-month supply of the medication that her son needs. But instead of stashing the medicine in fake carrots or watermelons as we’ve seen in the past, Caldwell plans to declare her contraband by presenting the medicine to customs officials when she returns home.
“I will ask them if they will let me keep this safe, regulated medicine that has kept my little boy alive—or are they going to take it off me, condemning my son to possible death?” Caldwell told the Daily Mail.
Caldwell’s plan is backed by former Health Minister and physician Dan Poulter, who recently created an all-party group focusing on the medical marijuana issue. He has been calling on UK Ministers to allow Caldwell through customs with Billy’s medication.
“This is both medically the right thing to do and humanely the right thing to do,” Poulter said.
As Caldwell prepares to return to the UK, she says that while her son’s health is paramount to her this fight is bigger than that.
“We’re fighting not just for ourselves but to give all those other families the right to hope.”
