JURY ACQUITS MAN WHO GREW DRUG TO EASE BACK PAIN

A MAN who admitted growing and using cannabis to relieve pain from
spinal injuries was acquitted on drugs charges yesterday.

Colin Davies, 42, also set up the Medical Marijuana Co-operative and
supplied two sufferers of multiple sclerosis with the drug. A jury at
Manchester Crown Court acquitted him on four charges of cultivating
and possessing the drug with intent to supply.

Davies, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, said that he took the drug
through medical necessity after suffering the side effects of
conventional drugs. Supporters of Mr Davies burst into applause and
shouted "thank you" to the jury when it returned its verdicts.

Mr Davies, who sustained severe spinal injuries in a fall five years
ago, was arrested last November after police found 26 cannabis plants
being grown in his flat. The police raid on his flat came only five
days after the Home Secretary rejected the recommendations of a select
committee that the use of cannabis should be allowed for medical reasons.

The British Medical Association has urged the courts and police to be
aware of the beneficial effects of the drug until research trials are
completed. Mr Davies described the verdicts as "a triumph for genuine
human values".

He said afterwards: "The jury today have played their part in helping
people with a wide range of illnesses. They have given people like me
a chance of getting a little bit of stability back into our lives." Mr
Davies, who has pledged to continue operating his co-operative, said:
"When I started using cannabis to reduce the maximum doses of other
drugs I regained my life and my well-being."

Andrew Caldwell, 51, a multiple sclerosis sufferer from Huddersfield,
west Yorkshire, who is confined to a wheelchair and has received
cannabis from Mr Davies, said: "Mr Davies has done more today for the
medical uses of cannabis than anybody else in history."

Clare Hodges, 42, a former television producer from Leeds who is
founder of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, said she had used
cannabis for seven years to help her fight MS. She said: "I think this
verdict means that further prosecutions are less likely. Colin has
been very brave in doing what he has done.

"For people to say that more research is needed is a cop out. We know
more about the beneficial affects of cannabis than the drugs that you
get on prescription. We estimate that 10,000 people with serious
illnesses are using it now and that is a conservative estimate."

A spokesman for the British Medical Association said it was in favour
of research into the benefits of the drug. He said: "In the meantime
we ask the courts to look at cases with understanding and compassion."
A Home Office spokesman said the Government would consider changing
the drugs laws only after clinical trials.

Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport North West who is a long-term
campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use, said:
"It is a ground-breaking decision. It shows the common sense of the
jury in overcoming an outdated law. What we are doing at the moment is
unfair and cruel - putting the fear of imprisonment into people who
are committing no greater crime than taking their medicine of choice
for their ailment."

Some 102 MPs have backed a Commons motion tabled by Mr Flynn which
"deplores the criminalisation of thousands of otherwise law-abiding
people who use cannabis medicinally to relieve chronic pain".