A LEADING neurologist has attacked confusion surrounding treatments which contain cannabis-based ingredients after they were classed as medicines by UK regulators.

Professor Mike Barnes, co-author of an All-Party Parliamentary report on medical cannabis, warned the classification will mean manufacturers will now have to show products containing cannabidiol or CBD meet MHRA safety and quality standards.

He raised concern that patients who have used the treatments to help with symptoms may not be able to access them just as their potential benefits have been recognised.

In the near future anyone selling CBD products in the UK without a licence from the MHRA could face a fine and, potentially, prison.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is known to back moves to decriminalise cannabis for medical use in Scotland. She is said to have made it clear she wants drugs policy devolved to Holyrood so the law can be relaxed.

Professor Barnes, from Tyneside, said: "If the MRHA and the UK government now consider that cannabis-derived CBD is a medicine, this is incompatible with the continuing Schedule 1 status of cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs Act that clearly states that cannabis has no medicinal value. The decision by the MRHA to treat CBD products as medicines has also been done without thought to the consequences for many thousands of people in the UK who currently benefit from the products. It will have very significant and in many cases terminal impact on the many legitimate businesses that provide high quality products."

Professor Barnes has called for Westminster to sort out the confusion, to "try to help those people with long term and often painful conditions who benefit from the ready and hitherto legal availability of natural cannabis products."

He added: "It is ironic that in acknowledging the therapeutic benefits of CBD, the MRHA is effectively suspending access to a product that has enhanced the lives of thousands for many years".

The SNP's Ayr North branch had a motion accepted for debate at the SNP party conference calling for the power to decriminalise cannabis for medical use to be devolved to Holyrood. They argue that "a humane society should facilitate the pain relief of individuals with certain conditions in a sensible and compassionate way".