FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES ONLY COULD BE THE CANNABIS WAY

When is an illegal drug not an Illegal drug? When it is a medicine.

The debate over whether cannabis is a natural way to ease pain or a harmful
and illegal narcotic has always been intense and passionate.

Yesterday fuel was added to the fire when Lowestoft MS sufferer Thomas Yates
was cleared of producing drugs.

Campaigners in favour of legalising cannabis said the case should never have
been brought and the drug should now be made legal.

Other groups urged caution, arguing cannabis was a drug which should not be
considered lightly and which could lead to serious problems for users.

While the Government has given the go-ahead for research into the possible
medical benefits of cannabis it is still at an early stage and whole-sale
legalisation is not on the agenda.

"The Home Office has given permission for trials to take place using
cannabis as a medicinal product and work is currently under way on cannabis
derivatives. We are at that stage at the moment," a health department
spokesman said.

Thomas Yates' doctor feels it is time the Government stopped dragging it's
feet.

Dr William Nottcutt, a consultant in pain management at the James Paget
Hospital in Gorlston said cannabis needs to be clinically tested as soon as
possible.

"We need to study the drug. If there is one message that comes Out of this
trial it should be to the bureaucrats in Whitehall to get their fingers
out," he said.

"Drugs have to go through long procedures before they can be licensed and a
lot of paperwork needs to be done.

'The message is, get on with it so I and others who are waiting to do
clinical tests can get on with it'."

Dr Nottcutt said the court's decision was unlikely to change too many minds
as most interested parties were awaiting the results of the Government
trials.

"I do not think this decision will open the floodgates as there were very
specific circumstances that were taken into consideration by the judge and
jury and they were very tragic circumstances," he said.

"But in the current climate and with the way we are moving regarding the use
of cannabis, I hope it will not be long before cannabis is studied
medically."

'The doctor said Mr Yates was a "nice man" and he was delighted at the
outcome of the trial.

"I could not be happier for him. It has been a long and very distressing
time for him," he said.

Jack Girling, of the Campaign to Legalise Cannabis International
Association, said Mr Yates' case should never have come to court:
"Prosecuting an MS sufferer is diabolical and a total waste of taxpayers'
money.

"At least once a week we are contacted by people with MS desperate for an
alternative to prescribed medication. The law shouldn't have the right to
stop people using a natural plant how they wish.

"The medical properties in cannabis have been known about for so long now
and should be legally recognised."

Clare Hodges, of Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics. Sufferers from MS and
has used cannabis to ease the pain of her illness for several years.

"Doctors should be able to give letters to patients using cannabis for
medicinal reasons, which would prevent them being prosecuted," she argued.

"People like us should not be prosecuted. It's a waste of public money and
utterly distressful for the people concerned.

"Cannabis has always been labelled a recreational drug but it has much more
value than that."

But a spokeswoman for AdAction, a national drug and alcohol treatment
service, urged caution over cannabis.

"Cannabis as a drug should be taken seriously and it can create real
problems for users," she said.

"We would be misinforming the public if we were to give the impression it is
a drug with no problems attached.

But the spokeswoman said AdAction did not believe prosecution was always the
answer.

"We deal mostly with the sharp end of drugs and can say that for. Some
people criminalising them is just not appropriate," she said.

A spokesman for Suffolk police said he could not comment on the individual
case.

But he did say: "While cannabis is illegal we will continue to enforce the
law."

Remedial or recreational? It seems the Government must decide whether
cannabis has a place in the medicine cabinets of the future.

Sufferer eases pain with one joint a night

A MULTIPLE sclerosis sufferer has called for cannabis to be available on the
NHS to help ease the intolerable'' pain of thousands of people with the
illness.

The call comes only weeks after British scientists announced that a
substance in the drug can help sufferers cope with the condition.

Barron Potts, 53, of Egremont Street, Gleinsford, was diagnosed with the
condition in 1994 and is a self-confessed cannabis user.

He says the drug is the only reliable way to ease his suffering without
causing unpleasant side-effects and is the only way he can make his life
bearable.

He is furious after fellow sufferer Thomas Yates from Lowestoft, was
prosecuted after he allegedly grew cannabis plants at his home to allow him
a constant supply of the drug to help him cope with the condition.

Mr Potts says cannabis is the only thing that works with immediate effect
and does not leave you feeling sick, drowsy or lethargic for days after
taking it, like many of prescribed drugs. He said: "MS is an awful condition
which affects around 100,000 people in Britain and I would say around 35% of
those use cannabis. It is the only thing that works.

"The only way I can describe the constant pain is that it is like being in a
vice that is closing. I also suffer from spasticity, spasms, my speech
becomes affected and I get attacks of optic neuritis which impairs my sight.
"I smoke one joint a night or take the drug in my coffee before I go to bed
and within 15 minutes I feel my muscles start to relax, the spasms stop, it
helps to control the spasticity.

"When I get attacks of optic neuritis it feels as if my eyeballs are about
15 times bigger than usual but

After I have taken cannabis I can feel the swelling coming down."

"Cannabis gives me eight unbroken hours of constant and vital sleep."

Mr Potts buys about UKP10-worth of the drug a month and admits he has to
break the law to do so and is forced to buy it in the same way as
recreational users, but argues he has no other choice.

I urge the Government to make cannabis a medically-approved treatment for MS
sufferers through the NHS or by any other means.