CALL FOR CANNABIS TO BE ALLOWED AS MEDICINE

A Shropshire MP has launched a bid to legalise the use of cannabis for
medicinal reasons.

Wrekin MP Peter Bradley is to table an early day motion in the Commons
The motion calls for doctors to be able to prescribe cannabis as a
medicine even though it has yet to be officially approved.

Mr Bradley is being backed in his campaign by former drugs squad
police officer Kate Bradley, from Donnington, who suffers with
multiple sclerosis. He has written to the Home Office minister
Caroline Flint expressing his dismay at the continuing delays in
getting cannabis approved by the drug regulation authority and urging
her to authorise its limited production for medicinal use.

"In Kate's case it's a particularly bitter irony that, desperately ill
though she is, she's forced to get her supplies on the streets from
the kind of people she was locking up when she was fit," he added.

"I've urged the minister to exercise a little compassionate discretion
so that medicinal cannabis can be made available to people like Kate
who are in dire need of it."