HCM Interviews: Callie Blackwell
NICE published its draft recommendations this week (8 August 2019) on the use of cannabis-based medicinal products following a comprehensive evaluation of their clinical use and cost-effectiveness. It is fair to say that the fast tracked guidance; following the re-classification of these product last year has been received with a mixed response.
Activists in the cannabis space remain un-impressed,
Hannah Deacon expressed her dismay stating
“I think this is absolutely ridiculous! Are we saying that every country in the world with a medical cannabis legislation is wrong? Are we that arrogant?”
Access to cannabis product for medicinal purposes continues to be highly emotive.
In this interview we hear from Callie Blackwell, author (The Boy in 7 Billion), Cannabis Activist and provider of illegal ‘medicinal’ cannabis products to the desperately ill.
Callie states:
“I don’t want to do what I am doing; the stress levels are astronomical. I was outside before I got here today on the phone to the mother of a five-year-old child who is dying, and they want to try cannabis but she is on an extraordinary amount of opioids so I have to be very careful, I don’t want to be in that position, I am not a doctor”
“This is not a new medicine; it is older than man”
“There is a place for pharmaceutical, but what I fight for is freedom of choice”
Callie has an affinity with many of the people she helps having turned to cannabis oil herself as a last resort when her Son Deryn was in a critical condition.
The irony of the current situation is that desperately ill people are turning to people like Callie to access ‘medicinal’ cannabis sourced and provided illegally under current legislation.
When asked about the NICE guidelines in particular Callie said
“They are barbaric. Nothing has changed for the majority of people who require Cannabis to live with any quality. I could go through these guidelines and tear them to shreds with primary ‘evidence’ that they would rather call anecdotal – This is heartbreaking.”
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