Resources and free downloads.

Free downloads

Printable sheets to keep, share or take with you. They're free, and you don't need to sign up for anything.

• Questions to ask any clinic (PDF, 2 pages, 360 KB). You can also read it as a web page. A checklist to take to a first appointment, or to use when comparing clinics: registration, the doctor, follow-up, every cost, and warning signs.
• Smoking or vaporising: what's the difference? (PDF, 3 pages, 380 KB). For people already prescribed: what the law says about smoking, what the evidence shows, and why it matters.
• Using a vaporiser safely (PDF, 3 pages, 390 KB). For people already prescribed: devices, cleaning, storage, children, travel and when to get help.
• Clinic governance self-check (PDF, 4 pages, 800 KB). You can also read it as a web page. For clinic managers and clinical leads: 53 questions across 15 areas, with what good looks like in Scotland and England.

How I chose these

I've included organisations that give accurate, balanced information or practical help. I've left out anything that sells cannabis, recommends a particular clinic, pharmacy or product, or nudges people towards a prescription. Nobody has paid to be here, there are no affiliate or referral links, and I get nothing if you click.

I opened and read every link on 12 October 2026. Where a resource only covers England, or only Scotland, I've said so. I check the whole list every three months, and sooner if the law or guidance changes. If a link is broken or a page has changed, please tell me and I'll put it right.

One organisation on this list, Patient Protect, is run by someone I know personally. I've said so next to it, in keeping with how I write these guides.

Official information

• NHS: Medical cannabis (cannabis oil). Who can get a cannabis-based medicine on the NHS in England, the known risks, and why products sold online are not the same thing.
• NHS inform: Medicinal cannabis. The same basics for Scotland, including side effects and how to report them. It covers NHS prescribing only, not private clinics.
• NICE: Cannabis-based medicinal products, information for the public. What the national evidence review found, and what a specialist should talk through with you. Written for England, but the evidence is the same everywhere.
• MHRA Yellow Card. Report a side effect, or a problem with a medicine, yourself. Anyone can report, not just clinicians, and that includes cannabis-based medicines.
• Shop-bought CBD: Food Standards Scotland (Scotland) and the Food Standards Agency (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). What CBD food products are, how much is thought safe each day, and who should avoid them.
• Bumps: Recreational drugs in pregnancy. What is known about cannabis in pregnancy, from the UK Teratology Information Service. It's written about non-prescribed use, so if you're pregnant or planning a pregnancy, speak to your prescribing clinic as well.

Checking a clinic, pharmacy or professional

• Healthcare Improvement Scotland: find a provider. Check that a clinic based in Scotland is registered, and read its inspection reports.
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland: choosing an independent health care service. What registration means, and what to look for.
• How to keep safe when getting medicines or treatment online. Six practical checks that apply to video clinics too.
• Clinics based elsewhere in the UK: the Care Quality Commission (England), Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and the RQIA (Northern Ireland).
• Check a professional or a pharmacy: the GMC register for doctors (only a doctor on the Specialist Register can start a prescription), the GPhC register for pharmacies and pharmacists, and the NMC register for nurses.
• ICO: Getting copies of your information. Your right to a copy of your GP record, which most clinics ask to see.

Driving, travel and the police

• GOV.UK: Drugs and driving, the law. The drug-driving offence in England, Scotland and Wales. It doesn't spell out how the law treats a prescribed cannabis-based medicine, so read it with my driving guide.
• mygov.scot: Prescription drugs and driving in Scotland. The Scottish Government's summary. It uses cannabis as an example of an illegal drug, so remember the medical defence for medicines prescribed to you, explained in my driving guide.
• GOV.UK: Medical conditions, disabilities and driving. Whether you need to tell the DVLA about your condition. It's about the condition, not the medicine.
• Home Office: Travelling with medicine containing controlled drugs. The rules for leaving and arriving in the UK, and who to ask.
• GOV.UK: Take medicine in or out of the UK. The short version.
• GOV.UK: Foreign travel advice. Check the rules in every country you'll enter or pass through.
• Medicinal cannabis and the police: guidance for officers (PDF). What police officers in England and Wales are told to do when they meet someone with a prescribed cannabis-based medicine. Police Scotland hasn't published an equivalent yet. My guide covers what applies if you're stopped in Scotland.

If something goes wrong with your care

Start with your clinic's or pharmacy's own complaints process. If that doesn't sort it out:

• Healthcare Improvement Scotland: making a complaint. For clinics registered in Scotland. Complaints are normally accepted within six months.
• ISCAS. Independent review of complaints about private healthcare providers, but only those that subscribe to it, and only once the provider's own process has finished.
• For a side effect or a faulty medicine, use the Yellow Card scheme as well as telling your clinic.

Legal help: police, work, housing and discrimination

• Patient Protect. Help for people prescribed a cannabis-based medicine who have been treated unfairly by the police, an employer, a landlord, a venue or a health service. It is funded by clinic subscriptions: since April 2026 it takes on new cases only for patients whose clinic subscribes, but anyone can report what happened. It can't help with a problem with your own clinic or pharmacy. Patient Protect is run by Alex Fraser, whom I know personally.
• Release. A drugs law charity with a free, confidential advice line, including on travelling with prescribed controlled drugs and drug testing at work. Its lawyers work under the law of England and Wales, and the phone line opens for limited hours, so email may be quicker.
• Citizens Advice Scotland and Citizens Advice (England and Wales). Free, impartial help with work, benefits, housing, discrimination and complaints.
• Complaining about the police: Citizens Advice Scotland's guide (Scotland) and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (England and Wales).
• Acas. Free, impartial advice on your rights at work and on sorting out problems with an employer (England, Scotland and Wales).
• Equality Advisory and Support Service. A free helpline if you think you've been treated unfairly, for example because of a disability (England, Scotland and Wales).
• Find a solicitor: the Law Society of Scotland and the Law Society (England and Wales).
• Housing: Shelter Scotland and Shelter England. Advice on renting and problems with a landlord.

Charities for specific conditions

These charities explain what is and isn't known about cannabis-based medicines for their condition. They're a good place to start a conversation with the specialist who already treats you.

• MS Society: Cannabis and MS. What's licensed, what the evidence says, the law, and how to raise it with your MS team.
• Epilepsy Society: Alcohol, drugs and epilepsy. A short, careful section on cannabis-based medicines and shop-bought CBD.
• Epilepsy Action: Medical cannabis in the UK. More detail on prescribing for epilepsy. It is more hopeful about some unlicensed products than the formal evidence supports, so read it alongside the NICE page.
• Parkinson's UK: Cannabis and Parkinson's, what do we know? A plain summary of the research so far.
• Macmillan: Cannabis oil and cancer. Why claims that cannabis treats cancer aren't supported, and how to avoid scams. Its summary of the prescribing law is simplified.
• Crohn's & Colitis UK: Other treatments. A short, balanced section on cannabis-based medicines for Crohn's and colitis.

Research you might come across

• Cochrane: cannabis-based medicines for long-term nerve pain. An independent review of the trials, updated in January 2026, with a plain language summary. It found no clear evidence of benefit, and explains why the evidence is weak.
• Be Part of Research. Find and sign up for health research anywhere in the UK.
• SHARE. Scotland's register of people happy to be contacted about health research.

Some clinics invite patients to join a registry or an access scheme, sometimes with lower fees in return for sharing outcome data. These collect useful real-world information, but they aren't clinical trials, and some are run or funded by clinics or producers. Before you join one, it's fair to ask who runs it, who pays for it, what happens to your data, and whether you can leave.

If cannabis use becomes a problem, or you want to stop smoking

• NHS inform: Cannabis. The risks of cannabis use and where to get help in Scotland.
• NHS inform: Support for people affected by drugs. Helplines and services in Scotland, for you or someone you care about.
• Scottish Drug Services directory. Find a local drug or alcohol service anywhere in Scotland, including the Highlands and islands. Run by the Scottish Drugs Forum.
• With You in Scotland. Free, confidential online chat with trained recovery workers, seven days a week.
• Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs. A helpline and support for family members and carers.
• FRANK: Cannabis. Honest facts about cannabis, and a confidential helpline. It's written about non-prescribed cannabis, but the information on dependence applies to anyone.
• NHS: Drug addiction, getting help. How to get help in England.
• Royal College of Psychiatrists: Cannabis and mental health. How cannabis can affect mental health, and what helps. It's written about non-prescribed use.
• Marijuana Anonymous UK. Free peer support meetings, online and in person, for people who want to stop using cannabis. It follows a twelve-step approach, which suits some people and not others.
• Quit Your Way Scotland. Free NHS help to stop smoking tobacco, including if you mix tobacco with cannabis. Prescribed cannabis-based medicines must never be smoked.
• NHS Better Health: Quit smoking. The same kind of help in England.
• Breathing Space. A free, confidential phone line in Scotland if you're feeling low, stressed or anxious.