PLEA TO ALLOW MEDICAL USE OF CANNABIS

Danuiel Clark is a permanently disabled man who uses cannabis every day to
relieve his condition; Danuiel Clark is a man who uses his condition as an
excuse to use cannabis. These are two points of view in one of the hottest
medical and legal debates around. KIM BATCHELOR investigates

Danuiel Clark's story begins in a far-flung paradise. But what happened
there, and the choices he made, eventually led to a prison cell.

That far-off paradise was the Greek Island of Corfu: Beaches, sun, the
Mediterranean - Clark was a 21-year-old New Zealander on holiday.

He had been living on Corfu, just off the Albanian coast, for a couple of
months with his older brother Shaun. Clark had had a job as a boatbuilder
and was working as a bouncer in local tourist bars.

"I got there just before the start of the tourist season, got to know the
locals, I had fallen in love with a beautiful Australian girl."

But one day, as he got a ride home from work, paradise turned to dust.

"Me and my brother were lying down in the back of a ute. This Greek guy was
driving; he hit a bit of gravel, spun out and hit a retaining wall."

His brother broke his hand and Clark, who was thrown on to the road,
compressed his neck. He could not move, or feel his limbs.

"I thought I was going to die over there."

That accident, on July 22, 1991, left Clark a tetraplegic. The 31-year-old
feels nothing from his neck down; not in his permanently curled over
fingers, not in his arms or his legs. He does, however, have some movement.
He can bend one wrist, both arms at the elbow and he can lift one arm above
his shoulder. But he could touch hot lava and not feel a thing.

"No feeling at all, except for the phantom pain, sharp pins and needles (up
his legs), like gravel rash. My quality of life sucks. I am constantly sore
and out of breath, lethargic, anaemic, it's horrible."

For most of the past 10 years he has been using cannabis. He says it gives
him relief, without side effects, from the pain of tetraplegia and violent
muscle spasms so powerful they throw him about.

"It's not about getting stoned. It's been 10 years; I don't want to be
stoned all day, every day. The pills (they prescribe) turn you into a
zombie, it's like you're dragging around a corpse."

But cannabis is illegal, medical use is no excuse under New Zealand law and
Clark, an invalid beneficiary, now has 10 convictions for possession and
cultivation of the drug.

"I like to think in World War II I would have been one of those Germans
shot for not following orders - I can't conform to turning into a zombie."

For 135 hours each week Clark has an attendant to do the things he can't.
There is someone to sleep over, to shower him, take him to the toilet,
dress him, cook his food, do his banking, take him to the doctor.

He can drive - with help to get in and out of the car. His adapted 1962
Chev has a hand control for the brake and accelerator.

"It's my feel-good car. Something that makes you feel good, it's like my
lounge, I can cruise off."

He gets out as much as he can, has a girlfriend, and tries to live like
anyone else. And he is a great optimist.

Clark was first arrested on cannabis charges in 1993 while living in
Auckland. His most recent convictions were in the New Plymouth District
Court this month.

"The police come around to bust me and I say `Look, I have this from my
doctor'. They say `We don't give a stuff, you're a criminal'."

Two years ago a judge sent him to jail for 12 days after police found six
30cm-high seedlings - that was his seventh conviction.

"Mt Eden was hell . . . they decided they would throw me in with all the
psychos and child molesters."

He says that at another prison no one took him to the toilet for four days
and he was left in his own excrement. The prison has rejected this claim.

For his most recent offences, possession of 805g and cultivation of 14
plants, he thought he might go to prison again, but the judge gave him 100
hours' community service. Police have not decided if they will appeal the
sentence, but are considering it.

Detective Sue Ashton says the amount of cannabis Clark was caught with was
"probably in excess of what he would need for his own use".

He says the 805g was a year's supply and the plants a backup in case some
were stolen - it has happened before.

CLARK first heard about cannabis from patients in Auckland Hospital's
spinal injuries unit. "Everyone I know in a chair smokes pot for spasm
relief or pain relief."

Back then he was being prescribed a cocktail of 200 pills a month.

"They up the dose the longer you have been in a chair. The side effects are
hideous, especially if you are on them long term . . your stomach lining,
it just chews up your organs, psychotic manifestations, you can't have an
erection.

"Your speech goes - it's hard enough to talk anyway, when you only have a
third of your lung capacity."

He had tried cannabis way back before all this happened, "just like your
average Kiwi. I was right into martial arts, I wasn't really into drugs".

Clark, who moved to New Plymouth last September, has not taken his
prescribed medicine for a couple of years, and gets by solely on cannabis.
He says it is not hard to find a doctor who supports him, although his
current GP declined to comment to The Daily News on the issue.

Clark prefers not to smoke cannabis, especially because his lungs do not
function properly. "If I haven't got much, I would get by on a joint a day."

He would rather sprinkle it on his food or use a vaporiser that heats the
cannabis and releases a vapour - but to do that he needs a lot more.

Britain is currently holding clinical trials using a cannabis extract that
is sprayed under the tongue. So far, tests on 70 patients, with multiple
sclerosis, cancer and arthritis, have shown that the extract significantly
reduces pain, muscle spasms and bladder problems, says The Daily Telegraph.
The trials, which are being carried out by GW Pharmaceuticals, should be
completed by 2003.

GW Pharmaceuticals' Mark Rogerson says the important thing seen in the
trials is that the treatment can significantly improve lifestyle. "For
multiple sclerosis sufferers it helps with incontinence and pain and allows
people to sleep."

If the final trials are good enough a licence will have to be approved by
the UK's Medicines Control Agency.

On Thursday, Health Minister Annette King returned from Britain, where
among other appointments she met those involved in the trials. She was not
available for comment for this story.

Canada already allows people with certain illnesses to use cannabis. In
America voters in eight states have approved ballot initiatives allowing
medical cannabis, and in New South Wales in Australia trials are being
conducted.

The New Zealand Medical Association says it supports research into the
benefits of cannabis for medical use, but the research must be
evidence-based and use scientific methodology.

Chairman Dr John Adams says New Zealand does not really have the research
"that says the benefits balanced against the risks mean it is a viable
therapeutic agent".

Cannabis has been used to stop nausea, combat the side effects of
chemotherapy, as an appetite stimulant, in spinal injury cases and multiple
sclerosis, Dr Adams says. On the other side there are the dangers of
smoking, which is how most people use the drug, and research that shows
cannabis suppresses the immune system.

NEW PLYMOUTH Police CIB boss Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Coward says
police are sympathetic towards Clark and his condition. But police are
concerned about the number of people they arrest who give the excuse that
they are using cannabis for some medical condition.

"We are sceptical about that, because it is fairly common. Last week I
dealt with a woman who said she smokes to relieve headaches."

Greg Soar, who a few months ago set up Medicann, an information and support
group for medicinal cannabis users, says there is plenty of research
supporting its use. "I don't think there is any research against it."

If cannabis improves patients' quality of life "there's no reason they
should withhold it - all I can see is it's political," says Soar, who has
HIV and finds cannabis the best medicine.

Medicann's website says cannabis was used as a medicine worldwide for
thousands of years before its prohibition last century. Queen Victoria
apparently used it to relieve menstrual cramps.

"I definitely know sooner or later cannabis will be medicine again in New
Zealand," Soar says, "but it's not quick enough for people like me."

Green MP Nandor Tanczos says New Zealand is lagging far behind the rest of
the world on the issue.

"While we continue to drag our heels we are subjecting many sick and
disabled New Zealanders - who are simply using a natural plant to increase
their quality of life - to persecution and pain."

The Government needs to recognise and allow people in Clark's situation to
use cannabis, and we need to do clinical trials in this country, he says.

"The first thing is to stop arresting people like Danuiel."

Tanczos has been a friend of Clark since the early 1990s - he picked him up
from jail after his 12-day sentence. "The fact he has been in jail in the
past - that's truly horrific."

Tanczos is optimistic that the law will change, "because I think the vast
majority of New Zealand would look at this situation and think it's
disgusting someone like that is prosecuted."

We are forcing people like Clark to get involved in the criminal world, and
for someone in a wheelchair that could be dangerous, Tanczos says.

Clark says since his last arrest his supply is gone and he has to buy what
he wants. "Which means I have to support the black market, which is stupid.
I have to deal with the criminal element, the drug dealers."

He has had his plants stolen plenty of times, junkies and friends turn on
him, and there is nothing he can do because what he is doing is illegal.

"(A few years ago) I was growing three plants. This guy I knew decided he
would steal them with a couple of mates. They came about 11 o'clock at
night, and starting pulling out plants. I asked them politely to give it
back. They decided to ring the police, so I got busted."

He moved to the Coromandel from South Auckland in 1994 because, after media
publicity of his preference for cannabis, troublemakers began hanging
around. He says this year another friend tried the steal his plants, and
also ended up reporting him to the police, leading to the most recent charges.

Clark is now facing a charge of burglary of that ex-friend's house. He is
due to appear in court on that charge in July and says he will plead not
guilty. The rules of sub judice do not allow us to go into more detail
about that case.

IN New Zealand under the Misuse of Drugs Act, the Minister of Health has
the power to grant a person an exemption for the use of cannabis for
medical purposes. However, no minister has ever granted an exemption.

In a cardboard box in Clark's kitchen is a file of newspaper clippings
about his cases, court papers and stories on medical cannabis. At the top
of the pile there is a slightly crumpled letter from the Health Minister
turning down a request for a review of his 1994 application for a medical
exemption.

"Mr Clark has only submitted general letters of support from doctors. There
there are no legislative grounds to review," says the letter, dated April
this year.

It goes on to say that the ministry would consider an application from any
doctor willing to prescribe a cannabis product for Clark as part of a
study. Authorisation would not be simply permission to obtain and smoke
cannabis. It details approvals, study protocol and reporting conditions
that would need to be to met - and Clark would have to pay for the cost of
the trial product.

Clark is about to start his community service sentence. He hopes to spend
the time researching medicinal cannabis and renewing his application. But
after years speaking out on the subject, he has no real hope that Ms King
will approve an exemption.

"I am trying to be sensible, I'm not telling everyone to stop using their
medication. This is the best option for me, and it's medically proven - let
me have a little bit of my quality of life back.

"The only time it really exists, this horrible law, is when they come and
take me away."

And he lives every day with that paranoia; that the police will be knocking
on his door.

"Just because I'm a pot smoker: `Filthy, dirty, horrible, disease-ridden
thing'."

It's a long way from a far-flung paradise. *