cannabisnews.com: Sufferer Cleared for Using Cannabis!





Sufferer Cleared for Using Cannabis!
Posted by FoM on July 22, 1999 at 12:38:10 PT
Source: This is London
A man who admitted growing and using cannabis to relieve pain from spinal injuries was today acquitted on drugs charges in a landmark case.  The Government is now facing new calls to legalise the medical use of the drug.
Colin Davies, 42, set up the Medical Marijuana Co-operative and supplied two sufferers of multiple sclerosis with the drug.But today a jury at Manchester Crown Court acquitted him on four charges of cultivating and possessing the drug with intent to supply.Davies, of Romney Towers, Brinnington, Stockport, Greater Manchester, successfully pleaded a defence that he took the drug through medical necessity after suffering the side effects from conventional drugs prescribed to him.It was the first time in a British court that a defendant had been acquitted of supplying cannabis on medical grounds.Supporters of Mr Davies, including the two men suffering from multiple sclerosis, burst into applause and shouted "thank you" to the jury as they returned unanimous verdicts at the end of the four-day trial.Mr Davies, a qualified joiner who sustained severe spinal injuries in a fall five years ago, was arrested in November last year after police raided his flat and found 26 cannabis plants being grown with specialist equipment.The raid came only five days after Home Secretary Jack Straw rejected the recommendations of a House of Lords select committee that the use of cannabis should be allowed for medical reasons.The British Medical Association has urged the courts and police to be aware of the beneficial effects of the drug when considering prosecutions until research trials are completed.A spokeswoman said after the verdict: "We are in favour of research being carried out into the benefits of the drug to relieve pain."In the meantime we asked the courts to look at them with understanding and compassion."A Home Office spokesman said the Government would only consider changing the law if cannabis preparations go through clinical trials.But supporters of Mr Davies were jubilant outside the court.Wheelchair-bound multiple sclerosis sufferer Andrew Caldwell, 51, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, who received cannabis from Mr Davies, said: "This means freedom."Colin Davies has done more today for the medical use of cannabis than anybody else in history. The politicians should please, please listen to what has been said."They should help us to help ourselves. The Medical Marijuana Co-operative will go from strength to strength."Former television producer Clare Hughes, 42, a mother-of-two from Leeds, founder of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, said she had used the drug for seven years to help her combat MS.She said: "I think this verdict means that further prosecutions of this sort are less likely. Colin has been very brave in doing what he has done."For people to say that more research is needed is a cop-out. We know more about the beneficial effects of cannabis than the drugs that you get on prescription."Ms Hughes estimated that 10,000 people in Britain with serious illnesses were regularly using cannabis to relieve pain. © Associated Newspapers Ltd., 22 July 1999This Is LondonMedicinal Cannabis Grower Acquitted - 7/22/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread2157.shtml
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