Pharmacist Simon Addison Smith, registration number 2024372, was removed from the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)’s register after it found that he had “deep-seated attitudinal issues and a flagrant disregard for governance”.
Smith was previously suspended for 12 months last year after operating Cannabliss, a pharmacy dispensing cannabis-based medicinal products (CBMPs), without “adequate governance and safeguards in place”.
Read more: ‘Cannabliss’ pharmacist pair sanctioned for lack of ‘adequate safeguards’
The GPhC heard at the time that Smith, the superintendent pharmacist of Cannabliss, allowed the pharmacy to operate even though it did “not have a risk assessment in place for the services it provided” and “did not maintain records to provide assurance that the CBMPs it supplied had been appropriately prescribed”.
It also heard that Cannabliss “supplied high-risk medicines to people who may be vulnerable in circumstances where no safeguarding procedures or training had been put in place”.
“Dismissive response”
At a review hearing this month, the GPhC’s fitness-to-practise (FtP) committee noted that it had seen “no evidence of any further remediation, reflection or insight” since Smith’s first FtP hearing in 2025.
According to the hearing document, the previous committee said Smith “showed, through his emails, a dismissive response to regulation and the fitness to practise process”.
Read more: Coroner warns private cannabis clinic after patient death
He “has continued to show limited engagement with this process”, the document added.
The regulator found that “given the lack of insight, reflection or remediation, the previously identified risk to patient safety should [Smith] return to unrestricted practice remains”.
Read more: Cannabis not effective in treating mental disorders, review finds
It said Smith “has not addressed past concerns” and that a “finding of current impairment continues to be necessary on the basis of the protection of the public”.
And it added that “after a year with no progress and further clear indications” of Smith’s “unwillingness to engage”, there is no longer any “realistic prospect of remediation of misconduct that demonstrated deep-seated attitudinal issues and a flagrant disregard for governance”.
“Fundamentally incompatible”
The committee said Smith “has consistently rejected the regulatory and reflective engagement that is an essential part of being a registered professional”.
It concluded that removal from the register “is now required” as Smith’s overall behaviour “is fundamentally incompatible with being a registered professional”.
Read the determination in full here.
