Curaleaf Opens Free CPD Training Portal for UK Medical Cannabis Prescribers

LONDON – Medical Cannabis has been legally prescribable in the UK since 2018. The endocannabinoid system, the biological mechanism at the core of how cannabinoid therapies work, still gets barely a mention in most British medical degrees. That structural gap is now what Curaleaf International is directly targeting with a rebuilt digital training resource.

The company launched the Curaleaf Education Platform, a free, CPD-accredited resource for GPs, consultant-level clinicians, and pharmacists across the UK. The curriculum runs across three progressive tiers (Foundations of Medical Cannabis, Core Knowledge for Clinical Practice, and Specialist Conditions) with dedicated modules on pain, neurology, and psychiatry at the advanced level. CPD accreditation is awarded on completion and can be logged retrospectively to support ongoing professional development.

The platform draws on real-world outcomes from the UK Medical Cannabis Registry, which Curaleaf describes as the largest clinical database of its kind, containing records from more than 55,000 patients. That data foundation, the company says, allows the curriculum to translate evidence into practical prescribing guidance rather than theoretical frameworks.

The training shortage carries measurable consequences. More than 60,000 UK patients now access Cannabis-based medicines on prescription, yet active patients are estimated to represent less than 10% of the clinically addressable population, a gap that industry observers have consistently attributed to limited familiarity with the therapy class at the prescriber level.

Dr. Simon Erridge, Research Director at Curaleaf Clinic, said GPs and consultants routinely want informed conversations with patients about medical Cannabis but simply lack the training to have them. “Medical school curricula haven’t caught up with the regulatory reality,” he said. “Cannabis-based medicines have been legal for six years, yet the endocannabinoid system gets barely a mention in most medical degrees.”

Juan Martinez, CEO of Curaleaf International, characterized the initiative as foundational to the long-term credibility of the sector, arguing that every clinician equipped with evidence-based training becomes a more confident prescriber, and that a wider community of informed healthcare professionals raises the overall standard of care patients receive.

The platform extends earlier outreach work, including a partnership with the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society announced in September 2025. Curaleaf says the platform will roll out across additional international markets in the months ahead.

The Curaleaf Education Platform makes an argument the UK medical Cannabis sector has been slow to make plainly – that the prescription ceiling is set by clinical confidence, not patient demand. With the UK now ranked as Europe’s second-largest medical Cannabis market and fewer than one in ten eligible patients currently served, the growth constraint is less a supply problem than a practitioner one. Accredited, evidence-led training that costs nothing to access is about as low a barrier as the sector can create.