The medical cannabis supply chain only works if patients can trust it. Over recent months, reports from the r/ukmedicalcannabis community and our own evidence show a pattern at IPS Pharma that breaks that trust. Missed medication, contradictory updates, and a style of communication that tries to make the patient doubt their own eyes. Call it what it is, gaslighting. Below is what the community reports, what we experienced, and why it matters beyond one case.

Status note We have raised concerns directly with IPS representatives regarding alleged misrepresentation and related communications. We expect to provide a formal update in the coming days once we receive and review a substantive response.

Community voices and what they describe

• IPS, general discussion
  “Anyone else getting constant delays and mixed messages”
• IPS Pharmacy sign up
  “Onboarding was unclear, updates were scarce, then silence”
• IPS going downhill
  “Used to be decent, now it is excuse after excuse”
• IPS, thread 2
  “Scripts delayed, no communication, thought it was only me”
• IPS CXH new system is dog****
  “The new system made everything worse”
• Incomplete scripts despite stock
  “Items were in stock but the script came back incomplete”

Threads repeatedly describe the same failure modes. Scripts flagged out of stock when stock exists, onboarding that confuses, a new system that adds friction, long delays, and customer service that either goes quiet or flips the blame.

Our experience, in parallel with the community

• Incomplete scripts despite available stock, our records show confirmed availability against returns labelled incomplete.
• Contradictory status updates, different explanations given on different days for the same prescription trail.
• Deflection instead of resolution, answers that focused on our supposed misunderstanding rather than the underlying process failure.
• Process opacity, no clear escalation tree, no published service levels, no post incident explanation when orders slipped.
• Accessibility ignored, requests for reasonable adjustments were not engaged with in a timely or structured way.

We do not publish this lightly. We keep detailed timelines, email headers, and security logs. Our aim is accuracy and accountability, not drama. When an explanation contradicts the documentary record, we say so and we provide the receipts.

How the gaslighting played out

Here is the pattern we observed. First, reality minimised. We were told issues were isolated, or due to our misunderstanding, even when timestamps and stock confirmations said otherwise. Second, the narrative shifted whenever we closed a gap. Third, confidence statements were made without accompanying evidence.

Representatives made it worse

• Serious allegation, flimsy basis, a representative floated a very serious allegation on a very thin excuse. It read like a desperate swing, not a claim grounded in evidence.
• Threats without substance, a promise to present evidence before a court was made, yet when we asked for that evidence or even a summary, nothing materialised. We hope to bring a positive update on this in the coming days.
• Misrepresentation of our position, communications implied confusion about our identity and platform, even though we have consistently identified as Kieron Holmes, publishing under The Reasonable Adjustment.
• Side channel viewing during an active dispute, shortly after withdrawing service, a manager closely involved with the case viewed my LinkedIn profile. That choice signals monitoring rather than resolution, and it damages trust.

  

• Escalation by tone instead of facts, rather than engage with specific points, the tone hardened, which only compounds patient anxiety and erodes trust.

None of this fixes a late script. All of it deepens the harm. If you want patients to trust you, meet evidence with evidence. Do not tell people their eyes are wrong when your systems are the problem.

Privacy policy update, same words, broken site

We observed an apparent update to IPS Pharma’s privacy policy where the text appears unchanged, but the HTML and CSS are broken. The result is a user experience that belongs in the dial up era, with layout issues and degraded readability. We have saved copies of the privacy page daily since the start of the month for evidential purposes.

This matters because it correlates with what patients report on Reddit. When your public facing compliance page breaks, it signals rushed changes, weak quality control, and a wider decline in system hygiene. Patients complaining about a dog tier new system and inconsistent status updates are describing the same root problem, a failure to manage change properly and a lack of basic QA. If you cannot keep a privacy page styled and stable, confidence in back office processes will drop.

Why this matters beyond our case

• Patient safety, missed medication for chronic conditions leads to flares, destabilisation, and in some cases hospital visits.
• Equality and safeguarding, disabled and neurodivergent patients are disproportionately harmed by process failures. The Equality Act 2010 and the Care Act 2014 are not optional. Reasonable adjustments are a duty.
• Sector reputation, each failure feeds the lazy narrative that medical cannabis is unworkable. Patients pay the price when policy hardens based on poor delivery rather than evidence.
• Association risk, if sector bodies or trade associations default to defending poor performance, they inherit the reputational damage. Accountability protects everyone, including good providers.

What good looks like

• Transparent stock reconciliation, if an item is returned incomplete, show the timestamps and the rule that triggered it.
• Clear service levels and a status page, acknowledge incidents publicly and give realistic restoration windows.
• Single source of truth for comms, one timeline per order, no contradictions, no buck passing.
• Reasonable adjustments by default, plain language emails, predictable response windows, written options for those who need them.
• Right of reply, publish corrections promptly when evidence supports them. Patients notice and respect honesty.

Evidence and further reading

Community reports referenced in this article:

• IPS, general discussion
• IPS Pharmacy sign up
• IPS going downhill
• IPS, thread 2
• IPS CXH new system is dog****
• Incomplete scripts despite stock

Our full timeline, message headers, privacy page snapshots, and technical logs are available on request for regulators, investigators, and the provider. We will also publish a redacted bundle in the public interest. If IPS or their representatives provide verifiable evidence that corrects the record, we will publish accordingly.