CANNABIS WHY I RISK ARREST: AN MS SUFFERER'S AGONY

Thousands of patients would benefit from a change in the law on use of
drugs. Graham Ball met one of them

THE British Medical Association has thrown the weight of its opinion behind
moves to decriminalise cannabis for medical purposes. In a report to be
published on Tuesday, it is to urge the Government to allow doctors to
prescribe cannabis derivatives to patients suffering from a long list of
ailments, including epilepsy, pain and hypertension. The report carries an
11page index of moving personal accounts from patients who are forced to
break the law to find relief from their symptoms.

One person who stands to gain by a relaxation in the law is Diane Lewis,
34, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in March 1991. On New Year's
Eve that year she entered hospital. Within two weeks she had double vision,
had become quadroplegic and needed physiotherapy to breathe. A former
clothes designer, she is now in a wheelchair, and can only walk with the
aid of a trolley a walking frame with wheels. She lives in Suffolk, and
she married on Friday.

She argues here that the BMA decision, while welcome, is only a first step,
and the process of changing the law could take too long for those who need
cannabis as medicine now:

"The drugs I need are either too expensive or illegal. It could be worse:
they could be both. What is a MS patient to do? Cannabis may work, but
they won't prescribe it because it is illegal. Betainterferon may work,
but they won't prescribe it because it is too expensive.

I break the law with the full knowledge and acquiescence of my doctors
because I owe my allegiance to a higher authority than that of the law. I
owe it to myself to try and get better. I am a lawabiding citizen who
takes cannabis for medical reasons. It helps me to control my bladder. Can
you imagine how distressing it is to wet yourself in public?

I find it difficult to believe people are denying me the chance to help
myself because others may be tempted by the drug's sideeffects. That is
not my problem. My problems are far more basic.

What makes people think they have the right to impose their moral values on
me? I am unlikely to misuse a drug. I have been trusted to inject myself
with betaferons, I have been dripfed steroids, yet I am not allowed
cannabis. I don't want to have to rely on the goodwill of friends to break
the law for me.

What kind of a choice is it between committing a crime and being
incapacitated? What is worse is having to ask others to join me in this
moral dilemma. It is hard to score in a wheelchair in both senses of the
word! The Establishment is encouraging us to break the law by withholding
treatment. When it catches us helping ourselves, it fines us. I suppose it
needs all the money it can get to pay for the everburgeoning drugs bill.

Why should MS patients be singled out, and doomed to a life without hope? I
know £10,000 a year is a high price to pay, but not for a life as you know
it. Betainterferon is always accompanied by the word "expensive". I am not
denying that it is, but I think I am worth it. Society spends money
educating me to degree level, and then writes me off. It makes me
economically dependent. What's more, it punishes me for trying to help
myself.

It amazes me that MS patients are not more angry. Why can we obtain
betainterferon in Suffolk but not in Cambridgeshire? Aids patients scream
when they are discriminated against. Why don't we? Maybe because we scare
people so. It is such a random, frightening disease, that we tend to
withdraw into our families. Because so little is known about it, everybody
feels at risk.

We are guilty in this respect. We should use the fact that we scare people
so, to make them feel guilty, to make them part with their money for
research. Instead, we take the easy option. We have polite,
nonconfrontational society to put our points of view across. When it does
campaign with a hardhitting poster, what happens? We complain. Instead of
making people think, with a truthful, if somewhat unpalatable portrayal of
us, we prefer to appeal to their better nature. I would rather hit them
between the eyes or rather kick them where it hurts most!

The MS society shies away from giving us any advice about cannabis. It asks
nicely for more research before it is legalised. We haven't the time for
more research: our lives are passing us by. It is not as though cannabis
hasn't been tested already.

What can we do? Shout about the injustices and hope that somebody with
power listens? We can only hope for a highprofile sufferer, and I wouldn't
wish that upon anyone. I would hate to think of someone enduring life in a
wheelchair. Life isn't pleasant when your eye level is at everybody else's
crutch level."