Medical Cannabis March 2025

Response

Your questions are in bold with our answers underneath. The order of your questions has been changed in places, where our response relates to more than one question. 

 

1/What policies and procedures do your police force follow when encountering individuals who are in possession of or using medicinal cannabis, including those driving?

2/How do officers verify the legitimacy of medicinal cannabis prescriptions during stops or arrests, and what documentation is required from individuals to prove their prescription is valid?

3/What training or guidance is provided to officers regarding medicinal cannabis, including its effects, legal status, and any specific considerations for patients with prescriptions? 

 7/Are there any internal briefing documents or guidance materials available to officers regarding medicinal cannabis, and if so, can these be shared? 

 

We have a Teams Channel dedicated to advice in relation to medical cannabis, which was publicised on our internal communications bulletin in January 2024. Information available via this channel includes the following two documents: 

  

• a medical cannabis information sheet which includes guidance on documentation (copy provided and attached) 

• a slide presentation on medical cannabis produced by our Drug Expert Action Team.  (copy provided and attached) 

  

Within the attached slide presentation, a name has been redacted in line with the following exemption:   

  

• Section 40 (2) relating to third party personal information. 

  

This is an Absolute exemption so therefore there is no requirement to conduct a harm or public interest test. Any information is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act if it relates to or is supplied by another individual and disclosure of that information would contravene any of the data protection principles set out in: 

  

(a) Article 5(1) of the GDPR, and 

(b) Section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018 

  

This serves as a partial refusal notice under section 17(1) of the FOI act. 

 

While there has been no formal training exclusively focused on medical cannabis, Avon and Somerset Police Officers do receive training on drugs offences and relevant legislation. Within this training, they are made aware that a medical exemption can exist for cannabis possession and use.     

  

4/Are there any specific protocols or guidelines for handling medicinal cannabis-related cases, such as driving under the influence, and how do these differ from cases involving recreational cannabis use? 

 

No information has been identified in relation to this question.  

 

5/How does your force handle cases where medicinal cannabis users are stopped while driving, including any use of field impairment assessments or roadside tests, and what are the criteria for arrest or further action? 

 

Avon and Somerset police conform to legislation in relation to drug driving, including for users of medical cannabis. 

 

As with all vehicle stops, officers will deal with the circumstances and situation at the time.  Any decision to arrest would be based on suspected offences committed and the necessity for that action (the arrest).  

 

You may find the following information useful: 

Medical cannabis and road safety 

Drugs and driving: the law – GOV.UK 

 

6/What role do unaccredited card schemes like Cancard or MedCannID play in your force’s policies or procedures regarding medicinal cannabis possession or use? 

 

No information is held in relation to this question. We have not identified documentation outlining the use of Cancard of MedCannID in force policy or procedure.  

 

In any response to issues relating to suspected drug possession or use, officers would make reasonable enquiries to establish any lawful exemption regarding that possession or use (including but not limited to checking any CanCard if the individual has one and it is presented) and then deal with any offences identified.  As with any incident they attend, officers would assess the information available to them when deciding whether they believe an offence has been committed and whether any formal action relating to that is necessary, justified and proportionate in the circumstances.  Supporting evidence relating to any medical exemption for cannabis possession would be considered within that assessment. 

 

8/How does your force ensure compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) when dealing with individuals who use medicinal cannabis, particularly those with disabilities? 

 

Responsibilities under the PSED would be considered and met in relation to medicinal use of cannabis in the same way that they would for any other factor and particularly protected characteristic.  We have information on Equality and Diversity, including a copy of our Inclusion and Diversity Strategy 2019-2024; this is available here. Our officers are aware of the need to comply with the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and follow Home Office guidance in relation to identifying the legitimate possession of cannabis.  

 

9/What data or statistics does your force maintain regarding arrests, stops, or other interactions involving medicinal cannabis, and can these be shared? 

 

We are not able to confirm whether Avon and Somerset Police holds the information you have requested.  On this occasion the cost of determining whether we hold the information would exceed the limit set by the Freedom of Information Act, and as a result, we will not be taking your request further.  In this letter I will explain why this is the case.  

  

If a public authority estimates that it would exceed the appropriate limit to confirm whether or not the requested information is held then, under section 12(2) of the Act, it does not have to deal with the substance of the request. 

  

At this time the limit is set at £450 or 18 staff hours work. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5 working days in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting it.  

  

On this occasion, all arrets, stops and other interactions with members of the public would need to be manually reviewed to see if medical cannabis was recorded in the body of a report or notebook. This would include searching all officer notebooks. There is no way of extracting data relating to interactions involving medical cannabis within an electronic search. It is estimated that this will take in excess of 18 hours. 

 

This letter represents a partial Refusal Notice under the Act. 

 

10/Are there any ongoing reviews or updates to policies and procedures related to medicinal cannabis, and if so, what are the objectives and timelines for these changes?   

 

No information held in relation to this request. We have not identified any ongoing reviews relating to medical cannabis. 

 

In any response to issues relating to suspected drug possession or use, officers would make reasonable enquiries to establish any lawful exemption regarding that possession or use, and then deal with any offences identified. As with any incident they attend, they would consider all available information and the proportionate actions needed to respond in line with the more general procedures applied across the force area.