Billy Caldwell returning to Northern Ireland with cannabis medication

By David Hunter

Billy Caldwell is coming back home to Northern Ireland.

The 12 year old's cannabis based medication will be handed over to authorities here when he boards a flight this evening.

That's until the Department of Health can sign off on Home Office measures meaning he can hold the perscription at home. 

It's received advice from an expert panel recomending the medication be approved under strict circumstances, sparking a review of UK law. 

However, the latest hurdle is proving even more difficult in Northern Ireland as there's no Health Minister in place to rubber stamp the measures. 

The family from Castlederg has been in London for weeks lobbying decision makers at Westminster to allow the use of the drug. 

A family spokesman said: "While the Home Office in London and Charlotte's MP Órfhlaith Begley have done an amazing job in getting us this far, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland have not confirmed that Billy's medication will be available.

"Whether for administration at a Belfast hospital, or to be taken home and administered in precisely the way he had previously been given his meds for nineteen months before the prescription ban.

"While we have been advised that the captain of our flight will be given secure custody of the original larger quantity of Bill's medicinal cannabis confiscated at Heathrow on June 11, we are also advised that the meds will be handed directly to the Department of Health in Belfast.

"We have also been told that the final four days' supply of Billy's meds, released under special licence by the Home Office on June 16, will not be released from Chelsea & Westminster hospital.

"This is a cause of concern, because after the administration of his Thursday morning dose of medicinal cannabis we do not know when the next dose will be released."