THOMAS DAVIDSON, 51, CHRONIC PANCREATITIS, GLASGOW

I went into hospital in 1986 - I had been a chronic alcoholic for 20 years.
It turned out my stomach was chronically ulcerated.

I had to have major surgery. Now I have pancreatitis and I'm in a great
deal of pain - all because of the way I lived: drinking, not eating,
sleeping...

Today, although I am ill, I'm a full-time carer. I look after Jean, who is
55 and who is in a great deal of pain. She has arthritis and can hardly
move sometimes.

When I first came out of hospital I was prescribed drugs for the pain. I
was told to take four of them a day. But after taking them I couldn't
function, my concentration was all over the place.

But the pain was so bad I was taking 12 or 16 of them a day. It was a
vicious circle: either my head was all over the place or I was lying there
groaning with the pain.

Without cannabis I wouldn't be able to function. I'd be too sick myself to
be able to help Jean. Since I started smoking cannabis regularly - every
day since 1990 - I very rarely suffer severe pain and it relieves stress.

Because I'm looking after Jean, one of the seven million carers in Britain,
I'm helping save the country UKP40 billion. I need cannabis to do that, but
I could be arrested for it.

They would prevent me from helping Jean because I don't obey their stupid
rules? It's a nonsense.

From being a monster when I was on alcohol, I have turned, I believe, into
a decent human being. And I was a monster. That's what drink did to me -
that's what a legal drug did to me.

But the Government say: "We'll hammer you for taking cannabis, but you can
go out and get bevvied." It makes a nonsense of the situation. It shows
them up as the hypocrites that they are.

The authorities can jail me - the only help Jean's got and the only person
that she trusts - for smoking dope. The only way I can deal with her
problem is by breaking the law - and they'd jail me for that.