Cannabis Europa 2025: a Wake-Up Call for the Industry
What I saw this year at Cannabis Europa 2025 confirmed what many of us have long known: without the patient voice, the industry is fundamentally flawed. And unless this changes, it will continue to fail those it claims to serve.
by Leila Simpson, United Patients Alliance
Enter: the UK Cannabis Industry
I cut my teeth in my 20s running political campaigns for the Green party in the UK and Australia (legalise medical cannabis was our most popular platform, followed shortly by assisted dying) and since I met Clark French in 2017, I’ve been supporting medical cannabis patient advocacy where I can, with my campaign strategist hat on.
One of the most important things I learned in the high-stakes world of political campaigns was one must seek to unite disparate people around common goals (a pity now looking at what’s happening in the left). You have to be wily, you have to be reasonable, you have to try to really see things from the perspective of whoever you’re trying to persuade, and respect them, even when your emotions are running high.
Above all, you have to be strategic - by which I mean always keeping an eye on your mission, and making decisions based on that ultimate goal. Power in numbers too. Power in people connecting and sharing their honest and considered opinions with each other, giving each other the benefit of the doubt. You can’t work with closed minds. Thank goodness our humanity spares us.
So I stepped into the wild world of medical cannabis patient advocacy after Clark lifted the curtain for me and showed me how patients were being treated (awfully). It was quite an introduction.
There were powerful forces that prevented access, and on all levels of this burgeoning industry there were challenges and issues that needed to be addressed.
The stench of stigma caused issues for all parties - except, perhaps from certain niche communities. But we needed general public support and that meant changing the narrative in the media. No mean feat.
You know how it went. It was the Wild West. But we were moving in a generally positive direction overall, supported on the backs of brave patient advocates never giving up. I stepped out of the industry in around 2022, and re-entered in the spring of 2025.
Cannabis Europa 2025
Several advocates and volunteers joined me at Cannabis Europa this year (a seminal conference for the medical cannabis industry held in London each summer). We were grateful to have been offered free patient tickets to our community. It would be interesting to see what had changed.
I attended a panel on the main stage where the commendable patient advocate Julie Durrans was speaking about the low quality of medicine, the unreliability, the lack of patient support and the significant danger of the government’s proposed changes to the Personal Independent Payment which if it succeeded, would mean a giant blow to the patients who relied on it, and therefore the industry. It was a scathing and justified perspective, shared by many patients. Julie called on the industry folk in the room to support campaigns to stop the PIP changes, to help lobby the government on this point. She presented beautifully, with passion and clarity. I thought, how many of the audience will remember this enough to take action after the conference?
I spoke to a CEO afterwards, who asked me “how do I speak to patients?”. “You don’t”, I said, “you listen”.
“The industry is concerned about product rather than patient. This is leaving us [the patients] to end up with substandard and overpriced medication. Luckily, the sense that I get from the cannabis industry [at Cannabis Europa 2025] is that they would like to open up avenues of communication to address these issues.”
I saw a number of old faces, made some new friends and was generally impressed with the response I received when I talked about patient advocacy work and the opportunities and potential in such a space - that would impact positively on the whole industry. In particular, some commitments of support from specific industry members were incredibly appreciated - but these are oases in a desert.
However, when I attended a panel of only patients on the second day of the conference in the secondary room, I could feel my ire beginning to rise. The patients spoke eloquently about how they could work together, the challenges they face collectively, what they’d like to see from the industry. I looked around the room and I saw in the audience patient advocate after patient advocate, supporting each other. But from the industry? Only a very few- of those we can give our respect and gratitude.
Patients should be seen and not heard
This is what it was like before I left. Most of the industry is paying lip service to the patients, at most. The message is strong: that patients should be seen and not heard. When it should be patients driving the industry with their feedback. They know what they are talking about (we call them patient experts, they’ve done their research and had years of lived experience), they know what changes they need so that all humanity can benefit. And they know how to make these changes. But they are being ignored whilst the suits give each other awards in private ceremonies costing hundreds of pounds for a ticket.
In any other industry, consumers would play a big role in driving it, dictating the terms, making companies with inadequate products drop out. But it is not so in the world of medical cannabis. It’s been sewn up with the clinics, producers, government, pharmacies and doctors all having conversations over the patient’s head, making decisions that consequently don't turn out in the best interests of patients. Rather than having a endless list of colourfully named strain choices, patients tell me they'd be happier with less choice - if only it were a reliable supply.
The patient is given what the industry thinks they want rather than what they actually want.
“It is clear that the industry needs to find a way to financially support grassroots campaigns.
Campaigns changed the law, campaigners raise awareness with personal testimonials and advocacy. The industry would benefit greatly from supporting campaigners”
Advocacy is a ‘doing’ word
Patient advocates have given countless hours towards helping people. They are driven by a passion to share their story so that other people don’t have to endure the suffering they did. They are good people. It is not easy to have to manage a chronic and debilitating condition and also to rise up and lead the charge for societal change. They deserve our support and respect.
They deserve the bods in the industry to come and hear them speak. To come and hear the impact at the very end of their supply chain- on people’s actual lives. I was disgusted to find out a few weeks after I re-engaged that a third of UPA’s core team had been left without their medicine because they were sent non-consumable products and the clinic/prescriber had not acted on it when they sent it back. They were in a lot of pain and struggling with holding things together. They were hampered in their contributions to UPA and were not happy about it.
The industry is hurting patients and crippling patient advocacy by providing inadequate medicine.
This is, quite frankly, not good enough. It’s time for patients and allies to unite together, heal historical differences and hold the industry to account. We invite anyone else in the industry who genuinely has patients rights and support in their heart, to join us, give us a platform, promote us, donate to us.
Listen to us.
Volunteer with us.
We really are stronger together - and we should all be collectively strategising our way around our collective barriers like stigma, to achieve our collective aims of increasing access to medical cannabis to anyone who could benefit from it.
We can build a beautiful industry together.
See you on the campaign trail.
P.s. Not one penny went into our donation bucket at Cannabis Europa. We had all funded ourselves personally to be there. It’s not sustainable. The entire industry relies on patient advocates opening doors for them and keeping them open.
If you care about patients, stand with us.
🔹 Donate: unitedpatientsalliance.org/donate (including guidance on ABPI-friendly giving)
🔹 Volunteer: hello@unitedpatientsalliance.org
🔹 Contact the author: leila@unitedpatientsalliance.org
🔹 Learn more: unitedpatientsalliance.org
