JURY CLEARS MAN WHO USED CANNABIS AS PAIN KILLER

Verdict 'brings closer' legalisation of drug for medical purposes By
David Ward

A man who smoked four cannabis joints a day to relieve pain caused by
a broken back vowed yesterday to continue rolling them after a jury
cleared him of drugs charges brought following a police raid on his
home.

"I will carry on smoking cannabis," said Colin Davies, of Stockport,
Greater Manchester. "It helps the terrible pain I get from my
injuries. I feel vindicated that the jury has listened to me."

The eight women and four men at Manchester Crown Court took just 40
minutes to clear Mr Davies of cultivating cannabis contrary to the
1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.

After the verdict Mr Davies provoked giggles when he asked for his 18
cannabis plants back.

The verdict comes just two months after a jury in Warrington,
Cheshire, cleared on three out of four drugs charges a man who
supplied his wife with home-grown cannabis to ease her acute pain from
multiple sclerosis.

It will be a further boost for those campaigning for the
decriminalisation of cannabis, including the thousands who marched
through central London in March.

Mr Davies, a former joiner who suffered severe injuries when he fell
60ft from a bridge in 1994, denounced the prosecution as a waste of
money.

"The only victim out of all this is me," he said. "I could not believe
it when the police broke down my door. I was being arrested for
something that was for my own medical benefit. Where am I on the scale
of criminality?"

The court heard that police, acting on a tip-off, had found the
cannabis plants behind a partition in the bedroom of Mr Davies's flat.
Mr Davies, who represented himself, said paracetamol and codeine
prescribed by doctors prompted spasms and sickness spells, and he then
had to seek hospital treatment.

"I read about cannabis as a relief from pain and I actually went out
and bought some off the streets," he said. "I did not like having to
do that so I decided to have a go at growing some for my own use on my
own property.

"I did it behind my own front door, there was no interference with
anyone else. I now find myself here and I feel terrible. I chose
something else out of desperation. I'm offering a defence of
necessity. The only choice from doctors is more pain killers."

Ian Metcalfe, prosecuting, told the jury there was little dispute
about the facts. "Mr Davies knew it was illegal and said the cannabis
was for pain relief. But as the law stands today that does not provide
the defence or justification to start growing a crop," he said.

He told the jury: "You have taken an oath to give a true verdict
according to the law. That is what the Crown asks. You have a duty to
return a guilty verdict."

During the trial, Mr Davies called as witnesses his own GP, a
consultant orthopaedic surgeon and Matthew Atha, principal consultant
of the Independent Drugs Monitoring Unit.

"This verdict will bring closer the day when cannabis use for medical
purposes is legalised," said Mr Atha after the trial. "The priority is
to make sure those with legitimate medical reasons are not turned into
criminals.

"A not guilty verdict means the jury thinks the law is an ass and they
are more sensitive to the needs of people who need to use cannabis for
medical reasons than the Government."

Last November, the British Medical Association published a report on
the medical uses of cannabis which called for more research.

"We have to recognise that there are many thousands of people who are
resorting to the use of cannabis illegally because they have not been
able to find conventional relief for their symptoms," a spokeswoman
said yesterday.

Checked-by: (trikydik)