MS VICTIM CLEARED OF CANNABIS CHARGES

A MULTIPLE sclerosis sufferer who used cannabis to ease his crippling pain
demanded a change to the law last night after a jury cleared him of
committing any crime

Thomas Yates, of Suffolk, branded the prosecution a 'waste of time and
money" arid said the time had come for Home Office ministers to legalise
cannabis for medicinal use.

Campaigners also said it was the latest in a series of cases where jurors
had refused to convict sick people who used the Class B drug for medicinal
reasons.

MS sufferer Mr Yates was accused of producing a controlled drug after police
found 40 cannabis plants growing at his home in Lowestoft.

The 51-year-old, a former deep-sea diver originally from Luton, admitted
growing the plant and smoking cannabis -but still denied the offence under
the defence he did it out of "necessity".

He said cannabis was the only drug that eased his pain without unpleasant
side effects.

Mr Yates said he was trying to grow a 10-year supply because his wife
Andrea, 41, was dying of lung cancer and increasingly needed his time and
support.

Court accepted his argument he needed cannabis to ease his pain and cleared
him.

After the hearing Mr Yates, a father of two, said: "All this has been a
waste of time and money.

Law needs to be changed so that people can use cannabis for medicine
purposes."

Police found the cannabis, plus a variaty of cultivating equipment in three
upstairs rooms while looking for a fugitive who had been an acquaintance of
Mr Yates' some years before. The wanted man was not found at Mr Yates' home.

Initially, Mr Yates had told the police the upstairs rooms were empty -
although when questioned he made no secret of the fact he was growing
cannabis.

Mr Yates, who now uses morphine - a drug which leaves him feeling sick - to
ease his pain, will. Be entitled to have his cultivating equipment back but
the cannabis will he destroyed.

"I know quite a few other MS sufferer, who use cannabis. It really works and
has no side effects,' he said.

"It makes your quality of life 100% better. But I don't think I'll use it
anymore. I'll have to stick to morphine. I will carry on taking the tablets
and see what happens. I know other people who use cannabis are frightened
they'll end up in court as well."

Mr Yates said he was relieved at the verdict, but the case had caused him
some stress.

"I have had a few sleepless nights over it, I am glad it is all over," he
said.

Sally Freeman, prosecuting, told the court Mr Yates had broken as it stood.
She said changing the law was not a matter for juries or courts but
Parliament. But Lindsay Gox, mitigating, told the jury in his closing speech
they should make the "common. Sense" decision.

He said: "You bring common sense to the courts, and that is what I ask you
to bring to this case today. I have no idea what your views are about
cannabis, about people who use cannabis -and actually it doesn't matter.
"This is not a case about legalisation of cannabis. This is not a crusade to
have cannabis made legal in the country. "It is about a man who suffers from
a crippling, debilitating, extremely painful disease, which won't get
better, may well worsen, and may result in the shortening of his life.

"This is not a case about a man who grows cannabis because he wants to party
with has friends to get high for recreational reasons.

"1t is about a man who smokes cannabis and has grown cannabis because the
other available medications don't have the desired effects. They carry side
effects.

"He is not doing it to make money. He is not hurting anybody. He is sitting
in his home smoking cannabis to take pain away to give him. A degree of
quality of life.

"It is a Catch 22 situation - damned if you do, damned if you don't"

The jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict after an hour-and-a-half's
deliberation.

Mr Yates, whose sister also suffers from MS, is hoping to take part in
Government-sponsored trials under which disabled people would he legally
allowed to take tablets made from a cannabis derivative. He said he had no
idea when those trials would begin.