Sajid Javid could cement his legacy by legalising medicinal cannabis, and now is the perfect time to do it

It should not have taken the suffering of a 12-year-old boy or the courageous protests of a distressed but determined parent to put the medicinal use of cannabis at the centre of national debate.

Now that the case of Billy Caldwell has been raised, and now that the home secretary has used an exceptional power to allow him access to cannabis oil to treat his epilepsy, that national debate ought not to take too long. Even in the United States, where hypocrisy and confusion fuels the “war on drugs” no less than in the UK, the medicinal qualities and uses of cannabis oil are legal and uncontroversial in 29 states.

It has also been licensed for such use in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. It has not condemned those nations to a condition of moral turpitude, and the release of Billy’s medicines will not do the same in Britain.

Whatever view of the cannabis issue is taken – and The Independent has always been open-minded and pragmatic in its belief – the medicinal use of cannabinoids is a narrower and more straightforward matter. Hospitals and GPs, by analogy, already make use of opioids, real and synthetic, both as painkillers and as heroin substitutes for certain addicts. It is something that is happening every day and, on balance, is something that has relieved human suffering. Even the most militantly conservative sections of opinion shouldn’t challenge those. Yet cannabis oil, a far less hazardous potion than the opioids, has provoked a moral panic as only the British are capable of.

Cannabis oil is unlikely to supplant cannabis in its various other forms for recreational use and illegal trading. Cannabis is, notoriously, quite easy to get hold of, making a mockery of the law and the pretence that it is some widespread threat to society. It is inexpensive. It is not socially consumed in the form of oil. The quantities of medically used cannabis oil would be tiny by comparison with the volumes puffed away in joints every evening by those chilling out.

As it happens, the health risks associated with cannabis – and there are undoubtedly some, if only those analogous to tobacco smoking – have been overlooked in the debate on wider cannabis usage, which has been dominated by sometimes irrational opinions of its effect on crime levels and the work ethic. Cannabis is probably, given everything, not as good for a human being as, say, an apple or a bowl of lettuce, but cannabis oil is a different matter – a medicine that can transform the quality of life of an epilepsy patient or someone with MS.

It wouldn’t take very much effort by ministers to amend the law. They have been talking about it for many years. It is telling that the last minister to seriously try to relax the rules, the Liberal Democrat Norman Baker, did so during the coalition government, and his attempts were firmly resisted by the then home secretary, Theresa May.

Now that Sajid Javid has succeeded to the role, and has shown some common sense in releasing the medicines to Billy’s mother, he will no doubt move to ensure that others in the same position won’t have to go thought the same bureaucratic trauma.

On migration and the Windrush scandal, Mr Javid has already shown an admirable willingness to stand up to the prime minister and to be his own man. Few politicians, including the most senior, leave an abiding mark on society, and fewer still one that is an unalloyed good thing.

Here is what, if we were being cynical, could be regarded as an easy hit for Mr Javid as he burnishes his political reputation. He should get on with it, and take another look at the war on drugs while he’s at it.