UK Government Agency Recalls Medical Cannabis Products Due to Mold Contamination
The UK’s Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued a recall notice for two batches of medical cannabis products following reports of mold contamination.
According to the notice, the MHRA was informed directly by the products’ importer and distributor, Eaststone Limited, that the two batches may be contaminated with mold.
And so, as a precautionary measure, any healthcare professionals or wholesalers who stock the products have been advised to stop supplying them immediately, quarantine all remaining stock, and liaise with Eaststone Limited to have them returned.
Any patient in possession of the cannabis medicines – which are labelled sativa and indica products under the brand Noidecs T20/C4 – should contact their pharmacist or doctor for advice. According to the notice, Eaststone Limited may be able to resupply patients with unaffected batches where possible.
But according to a leading medical cannabis patient initiative in the UK, some of these contaminated products may have already affected patients.
The group Cancard, which operates a medical cannabis ID-card system to help patients avoid arrest, has claimed that a significant number of patients have recently suffered from mold toxicity in their products.
“The fact that patients who live with chronic debilitating illnesses are now suffering from mould toxicity simply for choosing the legal route is unforgivable,” Carly Barton, the founder of Cancard, said in a statement.
“Many patients have returned to the illicit market this weekend and have lost faith in the private clinics. This is the result of a profit driven model. There is space for a more community-centred approach – with a health centre and dispensary that comes from a more genuine place with rigorous testing.”
The UK legalized medical cannabis in November 2018. But even nearly three years later, prescriptions can be hard to come by. Only a handful of medicines have been distributed through the country’s National Health Service (NHS). Instead, the majority of cannabis medications – an estimated 6,000 prescriptions – have come via private clinics. But these are still prohibitively expensive for most patients.
