Why a Medical Cannabis Not-for-Profit Started a Motorsports Team

One of my earliest racing memories is being told off for swearing after losing on Need for Speed: Underground. In my defence, I was only replicating my father!

A few years later, he introduced me to Formula 1 after Lewis Hamilton joined the grid. I began watching properly in 2008 and was immediately hooked, waking at the crack of dawn when needed to see every race live.

The highlight was Brazil 2008. My father walked out during the final lap, believing the championship was over, moments before Martin Brundle exclaimed: "Is that Glock?!" I had to scream for him to come back.

I wanted to be part of that world, but racing appeared impossibly expensive. Even arrive-and-drive karting was beyond my budget. Then I discovered marshalling.

In 2021, I attended American SpeedFest at Brands Hatch. COVID restrictions meant unusually small crowds, giving the freedom to explore. Watching the marshals made me realise there was no reason I could not join them.

I volunteered and was immediately hooked. Driving onto a circuit for the first time, even at 30 mph to reach my post, felt momentous. I was finally part of motorsport rather than watching from behind a screen or spectator fence.

I went on to marshal events ranging from grassroots racing at Anglesey to the British Touring Car Championship and Goodwood Festival of Speed. I can even add "told Gordon Ramsay where to park at Goodwood" to my CV.

I also competed in car trials, taking my Daewoo Lacetti off-road to see how far it could travel through marked sections. It was not Formula 1, but it was affordable, competitive and enormous fun.

After a road trip through the Netherlands and an eventual drug-driving investigation in which I was found to be below the applicable limit, despite testing a wide range of cannabis products, I began exploring medical cannabis through the proper clinical route.

My initial consultation took place on a Saturday morning at Silverstone before a day of marshalling.

Once I began treatment, I noticed immediate improvements. Chief marshals commented positively on my performance. I completed the required health declarations and passed my flag assessment while openly prescribed medical cannabis.

Flag marshalling requires concentration, communication and rapid decisions in a safety-critical environment. I performed that role successfully and was excited to return to Goodwood for a second year, this time in the Supercar Paddock.

Then a member of the public reported a marshal using cannabis.

I immediately acknowledged that the cannabis was mine and explained that it was legally prescribed for anxiety. I expected that explanation to resolve the concern.

Instead, I was removed from post while senior Motorsport UK personnel were contacted. I was eventually permitted to continue in the lower-risk Supercar Paddock while the matter was reviewed.

No performance failure or near miss had prompted the intervention. My medicine had become visible because of its smell.

That report eventually became much bigger than my individual case.

In February 2024, Motorsport UK introduced Version 1 of a new signing-on declaration. It asked officials and marshals to confirm that they did not have disabilities or mental-health conditions, use drugs on the WADA Prohibited List, or take medication that might affect their duties.

Motorsport UK later explained that the change followed reports during 2023 involving physical capability, mental health and the "substance use of colleagues".

I recognised myself in two parts of that explanation.

Anxiety was my declared mental-health condition. Prescribed cannabis was my treatment, but it was apparently being framed as "substance use". Although I was not named, the description reflected the defining features of my case.

Version 1 backfired horribly.

Disabled volunteers and marshals taking medicines including blood thinners and asthma treatments began questioning whether they were still eligible. Medical cannabis was also independently identified as a problem.

Within days, Motorsport UK issued Version 2, returning to a more sensible functional question: did the person's condition or treatment adversely affect their duties?

But medical cannabis remained explicitly prohibited.

My interpretation is that Version 1 attempted to capture cannabis through broad language about mental health, medication, "substance use" and the WADA list without initially announcing a cannabis-specific ban. When that language affected too many other volunteers, it was reversed, but cannabis patients remained excluded.

I cannot prove the private intentions of those who wrote the policy. What I can say is that my case was followed by Version 1, the backlash, Version 2 and ultimately a categorical medical cannabis prohibition.

I did not ban medical cannabis.

Motorsport UK made that decision. I did not write the policy or choose blanket exclusion over individual assessment. But it would be dishonest to pretend that the ban was unrelated to me. I was reported. My case was escalated. Policy changed. Medical cannabis was banned.

That left me carrying enormous guilt. I had been open because honesty was supposed to be responsible and safe. Instead, patients who had never met me could now be excluded because they were prescribed the same kind of medicine.

Intellectually, I know the decision belongs to Motorsport UK. Emotionally, I feel an obligation to those affected by what followed my case. Walking away would leave the ban as the final word.

I could not accept that.

In 2025, I was selected for the inaugural FIA Disability and Accessibility Mentoring Programme. It did not overturn the ban or determine my medical fitness, but it helped me turn exclusion into action and search for other ways in to motorsports.

That search eventually led to NORA Motorsport and Straightliners.

At Thruxton Retro, I completed 15 drag-racing runs in my Vauxhall Insignia estate. The drag strip was Thruxton's runway, located literally inside the circuit. Motorsport UK activity circulated around me while another governing framework allowed me to race in the middle.

That day marked the launch of the PatientsCann UK® Motorsports Team, the world's first motorsports team for medical cannabis patients.

PatientsCann UK® did not start a motorsport team as a publicity exercise.

We started it because prescribed patients deserve fair assessment rather than automatic exclusion. The team welcomes drivers, riders, sim racers, marshals, mechanics, media volunteers and supporters.

We are not asking motorsport to compromise safety. We are asking organisations to distinguish a prescription from impairment and assess the individual, the medicine and the role.

For me, this is more than a campaign.

I have to race because the ban followed my case. I owe it to the patients now excluded to remain visible, find alternative routes and demonstrate that blanket exclusion is not the only possible answer.

Each run down Thruxton's runway said that patients are still here.

The launch of the world’s first motorsport team for medical cannabis patients was reported in the specialist and local press.