Only a minority of GPs are ’exceptionally enthusiastic’ about the planned introduction of prescribing medicinal cannabis.

Health and Social Care Minister David Ashford this week told the Keys he was frustrated over a lack of progress with medical cannabis and he personally wants to see it being made available to patients as soon as possible.

Mr Ashford said the DHSC had held an internal consultation with GPs over the ’appetite for prescribing at a primary care level’ after a public consultation had shown widespread support for its rollout. He added: ’While there were some GPs who were exceptionally enthusiastic about the idea, the majority of the responses were not.’

However, Mr Ashford said the DHSC had to get GPs onside to avoid the situation in some jurisdictions where medicinal cannabis is legal, but ’no one is willing to prescribe it’.