Cannabis-based medicinal products: summary of NICE guidance

### What you need to know In September 2018, in light of the UK chief medical officer’s review and in response to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs advice, ministers in the UK announced changes to the existing regulations on cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs). CBMPs would be rescheduled from Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 200112 to Schedule 2 controlled drugs and that prescribing would be restricted to doctors on the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council (GMC). Rescheduling allows CBMPs to be legally prescribed. However, many CBMPs currently do not have marketing authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and so existing prescribing guidance and governance arrangements in place for unlicensed medicines continue to apply. Unlicensed medications should not be considered as first line treatments and should be used only when there is …