[photo caption:] Paddy Doyle, author of The God Squad: the cocktail of
prescribed drugs he takes for his medical condition would be the envy of
a hardened drug user

Matt Kavanagh

Friendly Rottweiler who snaps at heels of authority

Friendly Rottweiler who snaps at heels of authority Author Paddy Doyle
has found a drug which relieves the symptoms of his incurable medical
condition but his fight to use it has brought him into conflict with the
law, reports Róisín Ingle

Paddy Doyle is stretched on the floor in his Dublin office espousing the
medicinal merits of the drug marijuana. The sleeve of his bestselling
autobiography, The God Squad, is pinned to the wall. Beside it hangs a
droll Oscar Wilde quotation: "I never travel without my diary. One
should always have something sensational to read on the train."

This week, Doyle found himself in the eye of a media storm that was
sensational even by Wildean standards. His widelypublicised appeal to
be allowed to use marijuana to ease his often violent spasms, one of the
symptoms of his incurable medical condition, has added a dimension to
what is an increasingly thorny debate.

The Dubliner, a former winner of the People Of The Year award, has
suffered with idiopathic torsion dystonia since the age of nine. "I have
tried everything," he says. "Marijuana could be beneficial to me. I
should be allowed to try it under medical supervision."

The controversy began when Doyle, severely physically disabled as a
result of his condition, recently visited a consultant for a routine
checkup. When the consultant saw him he was dismayed by the high level
of involuntary movement in Doyle's body. He is constantly wracked by
spasms one expert concluded that a dystonia sufferer uses up as much
energy daily as someone spending 16 hours in a gym. The packets of
calorific powdered drinks on an office desk bear testament to this
assertion. "It's like drinking cement mixer," says Doyle. "It was me who
initiated the idea of using marijuana," he says. "I had used it twice
before at parties and found that the spasms were dramatically reduced."

Alcohol has the same effect, which means sufferers are faced with a
choice. "Can I handle this constant movement or should I just have
halfadozen gins? But, of course, then you are at risk of becoming an
alcoholic and couldn't hold down a job."

The consultant, who has not been named, took Doyle's suggestion
seriously. He wrote to the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, seeking
permission to prescribe marijuana to his patient. The letter was passed
on to the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, who replied.

"I wasn't expecting an overtly compassionate response, but the
clinically cold letter I got back surprised me," Paddy Doyle says.

In his response the Minister said marijuana was a Schedule One
controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Acts 1977 and 1984 and that it
had no recognised medical or scientific use. He said clinical research
did not support medical claims made in favour of marijuana and that its
use could lead to experimentation with other drugs. It was not, the
letter concluded, the Government's stance to change the legal position
on any drug including marijuana.

Doyle, who is married with three grown up children, was "amazed". "He
didn't even contact my consultant to inquire about my condition. The
implication was that I would be straight on to heroin if allowed
marijuana," he says.

Ironically, the cocktail of prescribed drugs he is on would be the envy
of many a hardened drug addict. "I have been prescribed a wide variety
of drugs since I was nine and never misused any of them," he says. Doyle
takes a mixture of antispasmodic drugs and muscle relaxants, but so far
nothing has worked.

Meanwhile, he knows of a prominent consultant in the US who notes a
"definite improvement" in four dystonia sufferers who were given
marijuana. The drug has also been licensed for use by people with
specified illnesses in some US states.

Now working in a large nonprofit organisation, Doyle says he does not
want to go looking for the prohibited drug "on the streets and pubs" of
the capital.

"Why should I have to? I don't want to have to break the law to stop the
spasms in my body. If I do decide to do that I will make it known and
the authorities can take me to court because I can prove that it is for
medicinal purposes only," he says.

The author of The God Squad is no stranger to controversy, having been
pilloried in the late 1980s by those who saw his critically acclaimed
autobiography as an attack on Catholic Ireland.

"And I know there will be some people who think, `He's off again, why
can't that Paddy Doyle just leave well enough alone?'," he says.

"Well, the simple answer is that I can't. I'm not the type to give in. I
like to think of myself as a friendly Rottweiler and I will be barking,
maybe even snapping, at the heels of the authorities until this issue is
resolved."

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