DRUG USERS AIM TO SUPPLY POT TO EASE PAIN

Cannabis users have set up a network to supply good-quality stocks of the
drug to people seeking relief from the pain of crippling illnesses.

More than 70 potential customers have made contact within a couple of days
of the Medical Marijuana Co-operative's launch from a flat in Stockport,
Greater Manchester.

Colin Davies, the co-op's founder, and associates in Edinburgh and
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, are part of a growing movement agitating for
cannabis to be legalised for medicinal use. Until that happens, they want
their customers to be able to stock up without the worry of resorting to
street dealers. The co-op will be run without profit by patients for
patients.

"Cannabis is being regularly used for pain relief by people who have never
broken the law in their lives and have never even had a parking ticket,"
said Mr Davies.

"We want a change in the law. If we don't get it, we will have to break the
law, and we're going to let everyone know that we're breaking it."

Mr Davies was acquitted by a jury in June of a charge of cultivating
cannabis after police raided his home and found plants growing in his
bedroom. He defended himself and provoked laughter when he asked if he could
have his 18 plants back. He told the court he smoked up to four joints a day
to secure relief from back pain after a fall at work in 1994.

He now risks prosecution not just for possession but for supplying the drug,
grown at a secret location in Britain, to co-op members. "I've decided to do
this because of the amount of pain out there," he said.

The co-op idea was born after calls from sympathisers and users after Mr
Davies's acquittal. He made contact with the Cannabis Buyers' Club in Los
Angeles and devised rules to ensure that the drug goes to those who need it
most.

"We require a letter of diagnosis from a doctor," said Mr Davies, who spends
much of each day flat on his back to ease his own pain. "After verification,
patients are asked to agree to a code of conduct. The drug must not be
resold and must be used in private."

The co-op has produced an identity card with a photograph and a leaf from
the cannabis plant the patient uses. Mr Davies is so anxious for the
operation to be seen to be respectable that he says he would offer to run it
from a police station.

"The majority of people who use cannabis for medical reasons use very little
of it and only when the pain reaches a certain level. The law needs to be
addressed so that patients and their carers are no longer subject to
criminal prosecutions."

A Greater Manchester police spokeswoman said: "It is the duty of the police
to ensure that the laws concerning the supply and cultivation of drugs are
upheld."

Checked-by: Don Beck