‘Should never have been prescribed’: private UK cannabis clinics face call for tighter regulation

Oliver Robinson felt he had exhausted conventional therapies when he left the Priory, a private mental health facility where he was treated for depression and addiction between 2019 and 2022. Initially he found relief from a new kind of prescription elsewhere. But by the time he took his own life in November 2023, aged 34, his family believe his medicine was making him worse.

In January, an inquest concluded that Robinson’s prescription for medicinal cannabis had “probably contributed to his death”. Catherine McKenna, the coroner for Manchester North, also ruled that his continued use of the prescription, first issued to him in May 2022 by Curaleaf Clinic, a private cannabis provider, “acted as an obstacle” to him receiving appropriate psychiatric and addiction care. His family understand this to be the first ruling of its kind.

Now, Oliver’s brother, Alexander Robinson, is launching a campaign for tighter controls on UK private cannabis clinics, including a ban on prescribing to patients with serious mental illness, and greater oversight of a rapidly expanding industry.

Alexander worries that others in Oliver’s position could be harmed by accessing medicinal cannabis. “If things do not change he is not going to be the last,” he said.

The NHS typically prescribes only a small number of licensed CBMPs – those approved by the medicines regulator – for conditions such as severe epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and chemotherapy-related pain. Legally, specialist doctors can prescribe cannabis-based medicines, including unlicensed products, in NHS and private settings where they judge it clinically appropriate.

According to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the healthcare regulator that oversees private cannabis clinics, most products prescribed privately are unlicensed, meaning they have not been approved by the medicines regulator. 

Freedom of information data from NHS Business Services Authority showed there were 659,293 unlicensed cannabis products privately prescribed in 2024, more than double the 282,920 issued in 2023.

About 80,000 people in the UK are thought to be in receipt of a private prescription. But there is limited evidence that cannabis is a suitable treatment for depression.

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Source: The Guardian, 31 March 2026