In the latest episode of What’s Your Why, Hannah and Mike speak to Hannah Simon, one of the original leaders in the UK medical cannabis industry, about her journey over the last seven years.

Following a 15-year career in banking and management consultancy, Hannah stumbled upon the emerging medical cannabis sector by accident and was one of the early pioneers when the legislation changed in 2018. Since then she has held several senior positions, playing a key role in shaping the industry and driving its innovation and growth. In her current role as chief operations officer at Script Assist, she is passionate about enhancing patient access and expanding treatment options to patients whether via cannabis clinics or through independent prescribing.

In this episode, Hannah discusses her career before medical cannabis, what brought her to the industry, and her thoughts on how it’s evolved over the last seven years.

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A quick mention about the sponsors of this seasons podcast.

At Botanical Health Dispensary, we care about you and your prescription.

Botanical Health is an independent medical cannabis pharmacy who are dedicated to helping patients by facilitating a medical cannabis dispensing experience that different to anything else available. To us you're a person first – never just a number or yet another prescription.

We know what its like to be waiting for your prescription or be unsure about the process and were here to help. Every patient really matters to us and we take full responsibility for ensuring your happy, well informed and feel you can rely on us.

If you would like support to use our service please contact us on email www.botanicalhealthdispensery.co.uk

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In today’s episode Hannah and Mike are joined by Dr Leon Barron, a GP and founding member of the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society, to discuss the role of cannabis-based medicines in mainstream healthcare.

Dr Barron is a General Practitioner graduating from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He has a varied portfolio of clinical roles under his belt, including both NHS and private practice and has an undergraduate MBBS teaching role at University College London. Since the rescheduling of medical cannabis in 2018, Dr Barron has recognised the potential for cannabis-based medicines to sit within mainstream medicine— while also acknowledging the unique challenges and hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve this.

For the past few years, he has focused his efforts on educating clinicians as he believes this is the key to reducing stigma and helping to improve wider patient access to these medicines.

Dr Barron is one of the founding members and former Chair of The Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society from 2022 to 2024, which has now grown to over 400 members.

He is also a member of the Drug Science Medical Cannabis Working Group and the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Medical Cannabis, helping to shape and influence wider policies around access to CBPMs within the UK. In addition to these roles, he is chief medical officer for Grow Lab Organics.

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A quick mention about the sponsors of this seasons podcast.

At Botanical Health Dispensary, we care about you and your prescription.

Botanical Health is an independent medical cannabis pharmacy who are dedicated to helping patients by facilitating a medical cannabis dispensing experience that different to anything else available. To us you're a person first – never just a number or yet another prescription.

We know what its like to be waiting for your prescription or be unsure about the process and were here to help. Every patient really matters to us and we take full responsibility for ensuring your happy, well informed and feel you can rely on us.

If you would like support to use our service please contact us on email www.botanicalhealthdispensery.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hannah and Mike are back with another episode of What’s Your Why, in which they sit down with Dr Anne Katrin Schlag PhD to discuss her research on medical cannabis with Drug Science.

Anne is a Chartered Psychologist and holds Honorary Senior Fellowships at both Imperial College London and King’s College London. As Acting CEO and Head of Research at the charity Drug Science, she leads the research for Drug Science’s Medical Cannabis and Medical Psychedelics Working Groups, publishing widely in both areas.

Over the last few years Anne has also co-authored numerous papers from Drug Science’s T21 (formerly Project Twenty21) patient registry, which launched in 2019 to make medical cannabis more accessible and collect crucial real-world data on its safety and efficacy. Through her work with the Drug Science team, Anne’s findings have highlighted the positive effects and promising potential of cannabis-based medicines for a wide range of chronic conditions.

In this episode she discusses the importance of real-world evidence in addition to randomised control trials, especially for botanical medicines such as cannabis, and calls on regulators to place more value on this.

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A quick mention about the sponsors of this seasons podcast.

At Botanical Health Dispensary, we care about you and your prescription.

Botanical Health is an independent medical cannabis pharmacy who are dedicated to helping patients by facilitating a medical cannabis dispensing experience that different to anything else available. To us you're a person first – never just a number or yet another prescription.

We know what its like to be waiting for your prescription or be unsure about the process and were here to help. Every patient really matters to us and we take full responsibility for ensuring your happy, well informed and feel you can rely on us.

If you would like support to use our service please contact us on email www.botanicalhealthdispensery.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.