DRUG 'RELIEVES SPASMS'

Clare Hodges describes herself as a "middle-aged, middle class woman", but
she is forced to break the law on a daily basis in order to relieve the
symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Mrs Hodges, a 42-year-old mother of two, has suffered from the disease for
17 years and has used cannabis to alleviate spasms and pain since reading
of its effects in a US magazine eight years ago. She heads the Alliance for
Cannabis Therapeutics, which campaigns for people with medical conditions
to be allowed to use the drug. The alliance estimates that more than 10,000
people in Britain use cannabis to relieve pain.

Mrs Hodges, a former television producer who has had to give up work, grows
cannabis plants at her Leeds home.

She said: "Cannabis affects your whole body. It can alleviate things like
spasticity [spasms] but also affects your mood and your ability to get on
with life."