Questions to ask any medical cannabis clinic.

Nobody should mind you taking notes or bringing someone with you. If you'd rather have it on paper, download the printable checklist (PDF, 2 pages). It has the same questions, with tick boxes, space for the answers and a costs table to fill in.

Is the clinic registered?

A clinic should be able to tell you straight away, and you can check it yourself in a few minutes. The right regulator is the one for the nation the clinic is run from, not where you live.

Ask

• Which regulator are you registered with, and under what name?
• When were you last inspected, and where can I read the report?

How to check: search the regulator's register yourself, rather than relying on a logo.

• England: Care Quality Commission
• Scotland: Healthcare Improvement Scotland (find a provider)
• Wales: Healthcare Inspectorate Wales
• Northern Ireland: Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority

Who makes the prescribing decision?

A specialist doctor. By law, an unlicensed cannabis-based medicine can only be prescribed under the direction of a doctor on the GMC Specialist Register, so it's worth knowing who that doctor is and checking them.

Ask

• Which doctor decides, and are they on the GMC Specialist Register in a specialty that fits my condition?
• Who else will I see (a nurse, a pharmacist), and who signs any later prescriptions?

How to check: search the doctor's name on the GMC register and choose "Doctors on Specialist register".

How is the decision made?

Ask how the clinic gets from your records to a decision, who is involved, and what happens if the answer is no.

Ask

• Will a clinician read my records before my appointment? What do you need from my GP?
• Does a team review the decision (a multidisciplinary review) before anything is prescribed? Who is on it?
• If you decide it isn't right for me, what happens next, and what do I still pay?

What happens at follow-up?

Many clinics review two to four weeks after a new medicine starts, then every few months. Ask what the plan is, and whether your first follow-up is booked before you leave.

Ask

• When is my first follow-up, and how often after that? Is it booked before I leave?
• Who will I see at follow-up, and how long are the appointments?
• How will we judge whether it's helping, and when would we talk about stopping?

Who do I contact between appointments?

You should know this before you need it: who to contact with a question or a side effect, and what to do out of hours.

Ask

• Who do I contact with a question or a side effect, how, and how quickly will they reply?
• What do I do out of hours or at a weekend?
• What happens if my medicine is out of stock?

You can also report a side effect yourself through the MHRA's Yellow Card scheme.

What will it all cost?

Ask for every cost, how much and how often, and add up a realistic total for the first three months. The consultation fee is only part of it.

Ask about

• the first consultation
• screening, review or admin fees
• follow-up appointments
• prescription fees
• the medicine itself (a realistic monthly figure)
• delivery
• membership or subscription fees
• cancellation or missed appointment fees
• anything else, such as letters or equipment

And ask

• Can I use any pharmacy that can dispense it?
• Do you or your doctors have a financial link to a pharmacy or producer?

How will you keep my GP informed?

Doctors are expected to tell your GP about new medicines. If you don't want them to, they should explain the risks, and some won't prescribe without it.

Ask

• Will you write to my GP about what's prescribed, why, and how it will be monitored?
• What happens if I'd rather you didn't tell my GP?

How do I stop, pause or move?

It's easier to ask now than when you need to. A clinic should be able to explain how you'd stop safely, and what leaving would cost.

Ask

• How do I stop or pause safely? Will you help me reduce the dose?
• Is there a minimum term, a notice period or an exit fee?
• If I move to another clinic, how do I get my records and a treatment summary?

What if I'm unhappy?

A registered clinic should have a complaints procedure. Ask how it works, and where you can go if it doesn't sort things out.

Ask

• How do I make a complaint, who deals with it, and how long does it take?
• If I'm still unhappy, where can I go next?

Where to go next

• Scotland: a registered clinic's written complaints procedure must include Healthcare Improvement Scotland's name and address, and HIS accepts complaints directly.
• England: the CQC can't take up individual complaints, but it wants to hear about poor care.
• Also ask whether the clinic belongs to an independent adjudication scheme such as ISCAS.

What happens to my information?

You can ask any clinic for a copy of your records. It's normally free, and they usually have one month to reply.

Ask

• Who sees my records, where are they kept, and who are they shared with (the pharmacy, registries, researchers)?
• Will my details be used for research or marketing, and can I say no?
• How long do you keep my records?

Raise data worries with the clinic first, then with the Information Commission (formerly the ICO).

What are the warning signs?

Slow down, ask more questions or walk away if you notice any of these:

• A prescription promised, or "you'll qualify", before anyone has looked at your records.
• Pressure to pay or sign up today: deadlines, countdowns, bundles.
• Upselling: extra products, stronger products or add-ons you didn't ask about.
• No named prescriber, or one you can't find on the GMC Specialist Register.
• No follow-up plan, and no named person to contact afterwards.
• No clear complaints route, or a clinic you can't find on its regulator's register.
• Being told you must use one pharmacy, with no clinical reason given.
• Being told to keep it from your GP, or to stop other treatment without your doctors talking to each other.
• Claims that it's natural so it's safe, has no side effects, or is guaranteed to work.

The printable checklist (PDF, 2 pages) has all of this on two sides of A4, with room for your notes.