Less than a month after the United Kingdom’s Home Office barred general practitioner Brendan O’Hare from prescribing cannabis oil for Billy Caldwell, officials at Heathrow Airport in London have confiscated a six-month supply of the medicine.
Billy and his mother Charlotte had traveled from Ireland to Toronto last week to obtain the oil and were returning home Monday when authorities seized it at the airport. Unable to replenish the twelve-year-old’s dwindling supply locally, the pair was forced to travel outside the country to attempt to obtain more.
“It’s one thing actually not giving a child medicine [they need],” said Charlotte at a press conference at Heathrow. “But it’s something very different when you actually take the medicine away from a child that doesn’t already have it.”
“It’s actually criminal to do that,” she said.
A UK spokesperson said that they recognize that people living with debilitating illnesses want to alleviate their symptoms but have a duty to stop people from bringing banned substances into the country.
“I’ll just go back to Canada, and I’ll get more, and I’ll bring it back again,” said Charlotte. “This is his anti-epileptic medication, that’s all it is.”
Charlotte Caldwell also met with Home Office Minister Nick Hurd on Monday regarding her son’s need of cannabis medication where she asked him to give Billy his medicine back. Despite having what Charlotte described as an “honest conversation,” Minister Hurd would not return the cannabis oil.
Billy has not missed a cannabis oil dose in nineteen months. Charlotte said that, by confiscating the boy’s medication, Minister Hurd had likely signed Billy’s death warrant.
