The British government has changed course in a case concerning cannabis oil, saying an epileptic boy can be treated with it after his mother said he needed it to survive severe seizures.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said on Saturday he had agreed to urgently issue a licence to allow Billy Caldwell, a 12-year-old from Northern Ireland, to be treated with the oil.
He said his decision was based on advice from senior doctors who say that Caldwell, who was hospitalised overnight in London, faces a medical emergency.
Javid said the British government's immediate priority was to make sure Billy receives "the most effective treatment possible in a safe way".
Cannabis oil is banned in Britain. Border Force agents seized it from Charlotte Caldwell, the boy's mother, when she tried to bring it into London's Heathrow Airport on Monday from Canada, where she obtained it legally.
She said Billy suffered two severe seizures overnight and that the cannabis oil is the only substance that can prevent life-threatening seizures for him. He began the treatment in the United States legally two years ago.
Caldwell said Billy has "stabilised" after receiving his first treatment on Saturday afternoon, PA reports. She said the oil has kept Billy seizure-free for more than 300 days.
The case has revived the debate over medical marijuana use in Britain.
Billy became the first person in the UK with a prescription for cannabis oil when it was recommended to him by a local doctor in Northern Ireland. But the doctor stopped prescribing cannabis oil after being warned by the Home Office.
After the government agreed to permit the treatment, Caldwell said on Saturday she and her supporters had "achieved the impossible" and called for a rules change to allow other children needing cannabis oil to use it legally.
She said the British government had put her and Billy through a "dreadful, horrific, cruel experience" that has left him in a gravely weakened state.
