The UK’s most significant legal medical cannabis identification card has been forced to close.
The UK legal medical cannabis patient verification scheme, MedcannID, has been forced to discontinue its services.
Hundreds of UK cannabis patients are now MedcannID card holders since the launch of its fully operational system in early 2021.
In an email to patients, seen by Cannabis Health, MedcannID blamed ‘ongoing Apple and Google store restrictions’ to its app, as well as ‘unforeseen post COVID circumstances,’ for its imminent closure.
Services have now been suspended to discontinue them entirely from 15 March 2022.
The email from MedcannID founder Marios Panteli and the team said they were “truly grateful” to have been “given the opportunity to help promote legal cannabis patients’ rights.”
The MedcannID card and associated app aimed to offer medical cannabis patients an effective means of identification to protect them against law enforcement or stigma elsewhere in the community.
In the last year, the organization is said to have assisted patients in situations with employers, landlords, at events, and public access areas, and with a need for more education among police officers.
Following the news, medical cannabis patient Jack Pierce commented: “Patients deserve an identification card which brings security to their conditions, either by a privately approved organization or the clinics themselves.
“The reason for this being that the legislation surrounding medical cannabis is still unknown to a variety of law enforcement officials and organizations such as healthcare centers and educational centers, an approved identification card is clearly in need and should be implemented.”
Patients are advised not to upload further prescriptions to the MedcannID app and to ensure that uploaded prescriptions are stored separately as evidence.
Medication should be kept in original packaging to prevent potential issues when encountering police.
MedcannID plans to delete all prescriptions and user data by 15 March, with support and advice services expected to be available until 1 April.
It hopes a government ID card scheme will be implemented to continue its services.
Panteli, whose company Numeds provided the first medical cannabis prescription to an adult patient in the UK in November 2018, told Cannabis Health: “At MedCannID, we did our best to provide an essential layer of support during the first time in the UK that patients needed to feel safe moving from the illicit to the regulated route to access cannabis.
“We are overwhelmed by the gratitude expressed in all the messages received in the last few days and are very proud to hear about our scheme’s positive impact.
“Even though there is still a lot of work to be done to protect patients, there have been positive moves in the right direction.
“Most of the clinics and pharmacies are now able to provide the essential aftercare support to protect the patients, and as a central patient register is being formed, it is now even clearer and more urgent to formalize the foundation for a system that allows medical cannabis patients to feel truly protected.”
Panteli added that he would now take time out to focus on family.
He added: “For the immediate future, I will be switching my focus to close family abroad, which I haven’t been able to support during the Covid international restrictions of the last few years.”
Disclaimer: https://cannabishealthnews.co.uk/2022/02/18/cannabis-patient-verification-card-medcannid-to-discontinue-services
