Over the past year I’ve been looking into alternative options to help treat my Ankylosing Spondylitis, and in particular the relative impact of Enthesitis which has been a growing problem for me, with it building an increasingly distracting deep ache in my shins, forearms and hands. Whilst looking into such options I discovered that the medical cannabis is now legal in the United Kingdom, although limited in provision via the National Health Service, but there are plenty of private clinics that are able to prescribe cannabis if you meet certain criteria. This is typically if you have a chronic pain-related issue which you’ve already tried multiple treatment options for.

So with little other options/ideas at hand I thought I’d give this a go. I quickly found a clinic online who I chose to register with. After registration, which required providing some medical info & history, I had an appointment booked with a professional within about a week. The appointment itself was fairly quick process, just a quick fifteen minute Zoom call to discuss medical history, goals, existing medication, considerations to this kind of treatment and the treatment options that I’ve tried already. In my case having gone through a variety of NSAIDs, in addition to physio, was enough to meet the criteria. A few days after the call I was approved for a prescription, which was sent to & provided by a related although separate company. After a further week or so I then had my first batch of medical cannabis.

I was initially provided with oil at a 20mg/ml THC 10mg/ml CBD mix, with the intent to start on a very low dosage and then slowly work up over time, primarily taking the oil in the evening not long before bed. There were few effects at first but as the intake increased I noticed what felt like an increase in a fuzzy minded headache the next day. This would increase along with the dosage. As I moved to a higher dosage I would sometimes feel quite high. In particular, I’d feel quite spaced out with a weird concept of time, and some strange side effects like thinking that I had super great hearing, or that my cat was teleporting around me more often than normal. Unfortunately though the cannabis didn’t seem to at all help in regards to my enthesitis aches, and overall left me feeling off worse due to the next day headaches.

The clinic I had registered with did provide follow-ups, and a doctor there was very helpful in trying to adjust things to better suit me. After a review, I was prescribed with some pastilles/gummies at an alternative 10mg THC/10mg CBD mix. These gummies were much more enjoyable in terms of taste and consumption, relative to the prior oil dropper, but the end result was much the same with no significant improvement to the targeted conditions the while also resulting in a hangover headache next day.

At this point I decided to stop trying cannabis based options, just because it didn’t seem like they were helping in any way and the headaches were leaving me useless with days wasted unable to put my mind into things. That said, I think it was worth a shot and it was quite an easy process in terms of registration and giving it a go, and at least I now know that it isn’t something that appears to help me in my condition, but based upon reports from many others it does seem like there’s a possibility that it can help some people with similar issues. Overall, I spent £124.30 (£50 for the initial appointment, £40 for the oil, £34.30 for the gummies) which I don’t think was too bad for what was, in my case, essentially a 2 month medical trial.