CANNABIS, THAT MIRACLE MEDICINE

I am a 52-year-old male with multiple sclerosis and I've taken cannabis for
therapeutic use for many years (Polly Toynbee, February 9). Before I used
cannabis, I was prescribed a multiplicity of drugs, some of which left me
at best disorientated, at worst, psychotic.

Last July I appeared as a witness for the defence in the trial of Colin
Davies, from Stockport, who admitted growing and using cannabis to relieve
pain from spinal injuries. He successfully pleaded a defence that he took
the drug through medical necessity after suffering side effects from
conventional drugs. During the trial, local public houses did a healthy
trade, patronised by witnesses, solicitors, the police, and others.

Davies was arrested five days after Jack Straw rejected the recommendations
of a House of Lords select committee that the use of cannabis should be
allowed for medical reasons. Since then, ill people have continued to be
prosecuted for using cannabis. A fellow MS sufferer in Cumbria is now
awaiting trial. Criminalising ill people is in itself criminal.

Cannabis works for me and thousands of other ill people. Are we to be
tainted with criminality? Will I have to buy medication of variable quality
from drug peddlers?