EX-PC'S CANNABIS PLEA

A former drug squad officer suffering from excruciating MS yesterday
pleaded with the Home Office to end years of delays and finally give the
go-ahead to the therapeutic use of cannabis.

Her move came as political pressure grew on the government to explain the
delays. An early-day motion tabled by Peter Bradley, the Labour MP for the
Wrekin, said the government had a moral duty to give sufferers the right to
choose to use the drug.

The Home Office has been examining the issue for more than four years and
is still not able to say when a decision will be made.

Kate Bradley - who is not related to the MP - yesterday pleaded with the
Home Office to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis to relieve the pain that
often makes her double up in agony.

Speaking slowly, reflecting her fragile condition, she said: "Smoking
cannabis is the only thing that works. I get terrible spasms that go from
my toe to my head. They can last for anything up to half an hour."

"It is so powerful it can force my body to crunch into a foetal position
one moment and switch to plank-like rigidity the next."

The medicinal claims of cannabis have been known for 200 years and Labour
backbenchers have been pressing for government action for at least five years.