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UK's First Medical Cannabis Legal Helpline Launches as Patients Navigate New Police Guidance Ben Stevens Business of Cannabis Monday 26 Jan 2026 The newly launched service, Releaf Protect, comes as the all-too-often misguided treatment of medical cannabis patients remains squarely in the spotlight, driven by the recent publication of the first official guidance for UK police officers, and the subsequent mainstream media framing of this issue. Patients on the clinic’s Releaf+ subscription plan will now have access to independent situation-specific legal advice provided by leading UK law firm Irwin Mitchell. “Medical cannabis has been legal in the UK for several years, yet patients are still too often left carrying the burden of explaining the law in moments that can feel intimidating or stressful,” said Releaf’s CEO, Tim Kirby. “As the UK’s leading medical cannabis healthcare provider, we believe our responsibility doesn’t end with prescribing – it extends to ensuring patients feel supported, protected and confident in everyday life.” Beyond police encounters While the timing of this service is serendipitous, Releaf’s Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Rupa Shah, tells Business of Cannabis it was in the works long before they were aware of the new guidance. “It’s something we have been wanting to do for a while, but it took us a little while to find the perfect provider, the perfect law firm that could provide this service for us,” she explained. According to Shah, when developing the service, Releaf identified nine distinct categories where patients most commonly seek advice. These included (in no particular order): Employment issues, including failed drug tests Housing disputes with landlords over the use of medication in their property Criminal matters involving seizures and arrests Traffic stops and concerns over driving under the influence Healthcare discrimination, where patients are told to discontinue treatment before a procedure Family court cases, where medical cannabis use is referenced in custody battles Education barriers for University students Travel complications “It was a really useful process for us to identify these categories,” Shah added. She explained that the Protect service was specifically designed for ‘active situations’, providing patients with legal clarity until they have their own legal representation. Furthermore, all interactions with the service will be kept completely confidential, and the content of legal advice will not be shared with Releaf. “If they’re in a scenario where they’re arrested, it’s to give them the advice they need up until the point where they could have a duty solicitor. What should I say? How should I approach this situation? That’s what the legal advisors can do right there on the spot.” “We’ve also been speaking with academics at Liverpool John Moores who’ve done a study into police and medical cannabis, and we provided this information to them as well.” This research, which was published in November 2025, found that 88% of operational police officers knew ‘little or nothing’ about prescribed cannabis, with many having been actively misinformed during training, and documented numerous cases where patients endured significant consequences for carrying their legal medication. Author of the new police guidance, retired Drug Squad Chief Richard List, noted that these same knowledge gaps persist ‘everywhere’. “Airport security, Royal Mail, local councils, and even the NHS all lack basic training and education for staff around medical cannabis.” Releaf has been working to address police knowledge gaps directly for years through dedicated workshops, including one held at supplier Glass Pharms’ facility for Warwickshire Police officers. The workshop demonstrated the highly regulated pharmaceutical environment and introduced verification tools like Releaf’s Medical Cannabis Card, which List suggested was a ‘smart idea’. UK’s First Medical Cannabis Legal Helpline Launches as Patients Navigate New Police Guidance This active outreach helped position Releaf as a leading source of knowledge for List when developing the guidelines. Speaking to Business of Cannabis, List said he had worked with Releaf directly when developing the guidelines, and told us he ‘wished he’d done it sooner’. Shah explained: “He’d already submitted the first version to the NPCC by the time we spoke to him. He felt it was still worth engaging with us and looking at that first draft.” Though briefer than both parties would have liked, the encounter helped raise a number of areas for improvement. A key point of contention in the guidance related to the Cancard scheme, launched in 2020, which confirms medical conditions but not actual prescriptions. Releaf’s own card scheme, meanwhile, provides proof of current legal prescriptions with secure two-factor verification. “We explained to Richard that our card is more about authentication and verifiability,” Shah said. “It’s digital, you’ve got all the features with the Releaf card, which are really important. He felt it was important that information be put in.” What still needs to be done? List himself noted that this guidance was ‘imperfect’, and would need further improvement in the coming months and years. Asked what she’d like to see added to the guidance in future iterations, Shah suggested that a ‘formalised education program’ for frontline officers was critical. “What we do understand from our interactions with police is that it’s not always seen as an ongoing education process for police, but it needs to be reinforced. So having it at those two ends of the spectrum, very early days or top-tier police officers, doesn’t really integrate this knowledge to where we feel it needs to be placed.” “That’s something we’ve actually talked about extensively with Richard (List), various ways in which we could assist as a clinic, educating street officers, educating the CDLOS, police officers at all different levels that experience interactions with patients beyond the College of Policing. There’s potential for putting things into, for example, degree syllabuses and policing degrees, and there’s potential for further workshops.” Despite these challenges, Shah says early patient response to Releaf Protect has been positive. “I think our patients feel supported by the fact that their clinic is going beyond just providing them with medicine and is looking into the concerns they’re raising with us,” she explained. “We’ve had lots of calls into our patient support helpline saying it’s a really good idea.” The clinic has also seen encouraging signs of progress on the ground. “We’ve actually had one patient who said they were referred to us by a police officer who said, ‘did you know I’ve learned about this recently?’ That was really promising.” While progress is clearly being made among UK law enforcement, the burden of education still falls too heavily on the shoulders of private clinics, and the burden of justification still falls too heavily on the shoulders of patients. With the launch of Releaf Protect, some of that weight has now been relieved. https://businessofcannabis.com/uks-first-medical-cannabis-legal-helpline-launches-as-patients-navigate-new-police-guidance/
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