Is Cannabis Legal in the UK?

We get asked this in the shop most weeks, usually by someone who has read something online and cannot tell whether it is true. The honest answer has four parts, because “cannabis” covers four different legal situations and people tend to mix them up.

This page is the short version of each. Every part links to a longer article, and everything here is sourced to the actual legislation rather than to somebody’s summary of it.

What the law actually says

Cannabis is a Class B controlled drug, and the 2018 changes did not alter that. But classification is only half the story, and reading it as the whole story is what produces the wrong answer. Class decides the penalty for an offence. It does not decide whether a lawful route exists, and since 2018 one does.

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 lists cannabis and cannabis resin in Schedule 2, Part II, which is the Class B list. It was briefly reclassified to Class C in January 2004, then moved back to Class B on 26 January 2009, where it has stayed.

The Act defines cannabis widely. Section 37 covers any plant of the genus Cannabis, or any part of one, with three exceptions: mature stalk, fibre taken from mature stalk, and seed. Everything else, including the flower and the leaves, is a controlled drug.

One more thing, because it comes up. The Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, the law often called the “legal highs ban”, does not apply to cannabis at all. Schedule 1 of that Act exempts anything already controlled under the 1971 Act. Cannabis is dealt with under the older law, always.

What really happened in 2018

Before November 2018, cannabis sat in Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. Schedule 1 is for drugs with no recognised medical use. Nothing in it can be prescribed, and even researching it needs a Home Office licence.

On 1 November 2018, SI 2018/1055 carved out a defined category and moved it to Schedule 2, which is where morphine and diamorphine sit. Drugs in Schedule 2 are tightly controlled but they can be prescribed.

The category is called a cannabis-based product for medicinal use in humans, usually shortened to CBPM. To qualify, a product has to pass all three limbs of the test in regulation 2: it contains cannabis, cannabis resin, cannabinol or a cannabinol derivative; it is produced for medicinal use in humans; and it is a medicinal product, or an ingredient of one.

So the change created a prescribing route for products meeting that test. Cannabis that does not meet it stayed exactly where it was, in Schedule 1. Buying, growing, sharing and possessing without a prescription are all still offences, on precisely the same terms as before.

Who can prescribe, and who cannot

Only a doctor on the GMC Specialist Register can start an unlicensed cannabis prescription. Your GP cannot, however sympathetic they are.

Regulation 16A restricts unlicensed CBPMs to prescription by a specialist, defined as a doctor on the register kept under section 34D of the Medical Act 1983. The GMC states the same rule to its own doctors, and NHS England confirms that treatment must be initiated and signed by a specialist. 

Three cannabis medicines hold a full UK licence, these are the only cannabis medicines available on the NHS:

Everything else prescribed in the UK is unlicensed, supplied as a “special”. That puts the responsibility for the decision squarely on the doctor who signs it and is accessible via a Private Clinic. 

At Cosmic Tree we have lots of information on the various Private Clinics operating in the UK. There are now 30-40 medical Cannabis Clinics operating in the UK.

The practical result shows in the numbers.

A written answer to Parliament in March 2025 put NHS prescribing of licensed cannabis medicines in England at 5,413 items to 880 patients over a year. NHS prescribing of unlicensed products was so small that the figures were withheld to protect patient identity, because fewer than five people were involved. Private prescribing, meanwhile, reached 182,008 items by October 2023 according to the House of Commons Library, and has grown since.

In other words, medical cannabis in the UK is overwhelmingly private and overwhelmingly paid for by patients.

What you can legally buy in a shop

Medical Cannabis is ONLY available on prescription via a private Medical Cannabis Clinic.

At Cosmic Tree we can guide and share our experience of what its like to be a Medical Cannabis Patient in the UK. We share our experiences of how to access a prescription and we are a community space where Medical Cannabis Patients can come and use there prescription without any judgement or discrimination. 

At Cosmic Tree we sell CBD containing products.

CBD Is legal in the UK providing it is derived from approved industrial hemp strains and containing less than 0.2% THC

The test that actually applies to a product is the “exempt product” definition in regulation 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. A product has to satisfy all three of these:

1. It is not designed for administering the controlled drug to a person or animal.
2. The controlled drug cannot be recovered from it by readily applicable means, or only in a yield too small to pose a risk to health.
3. No single component part contains more than one milligram of the controlled drug.

Read that third one carefully. It is an absolute weight, not a percentage. A large bottle at a very low percentage can easily hold far more than a milligram of THC and fail the test outright. Percentage claims do not answer the question the law is asking.

There is a second trap around hemp flower. A cultivation licence permits use of the non-controlled parts of the plant, meaning stalk, fibre and seed. Home Office guidance is explicit that the flowering tops and the leaves remain controlled cannabis regardless of the licence, cannot be used, and must be destroyed. That is why the legal position on hemp flower sold as a smoking product is far shakier than the trade generally assumes.

Four things people get wrong

“Cannabis was legalised in 2018”

Medical cannabis became prescribable, and that part is real. What did not happen is general legalisation: buying, growing and sharing without a prescription remained offences, untouched. Both halves of that get reported as the whole story, which is why so many people end up with the wrong picture.

“My GP can prescribe it now”

Only a doctor on the GMC Specialist Register can start an unlicensed prescription.

“Under 0.2% THC is legal”

That figure governs which seeds a licensed farmer may plant. The test for a product is one milligram per component part, plus two other conditions, and it is a weight rather than a percentage.

“A cannabis card makes it legal”

Cards sold by private companies are not government or NHS documents and confer no legal status. What matters is an actual prescription and the dispensing label that came with it.

If you are in Gloucester

We are a shop and a community space. We are not a clinic or law firm, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do is point you at the real routes rather than the internet’s version of them. We can provide support and insight, give real experiences of what its like to be a Medical Cannabis Patient and we can signpost you to private Medical Cannabis Clinic and other Medical Cannabis charities, support groups and Specialist cannabis Lawyers that can give legal support and advice.

If you already hold a prescription, we stock the vaporisers that you need to use your prescription, including Storz and Bickel, Pax and Dynavap, and we can talk you through the differences.

And if you are simply trying to work out what is true, come and ask. There is no charge for a conversation and nobody will judge you for the question.

This article explains what the legislation says and links to it throughout. It is general information, not legal or medical advice, and it does not cover every situation. If you need advice about your own circumstances, speak to a solicitor or to a qualified clinician. Last reviewed 2 September 2026.