Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
A grandmother who sprinkles cannabis over her cheese on toast to help cope with excruciating symptoms has called for it to be legalized.
Sue Cox has been battling Multiple Sclerosis (MS) since 2014 but says the only thing that has ever helped ease her discomfort is the illegal drug.
The 65-year-old says everything else she has been prescribed with - from nerve blocking medications to morphine - did nothing to curb her symptoms.
"To be quote honest, the side effects were too bad and for me they don't work," she told Wales Online.
"But I smoked cannabis as a 17 or 18-year-old and basically I knew how it made me feel then.
"It relaxes you. That's it in a nutshell. Your muscles feel totally tight all the time and then you will have a spasm which is quite painful and you want to try and avoid that.
"And I find that the cannabis can help with the tension in the muscles."
Sue, who prefers to smoke her cannabis but occasionally enjoys it "sprinkled on a bit of cheese on toast", has joined an ever-growing chorus of patients, campaigners, and politicians in Wales who are calling for the therapeutic use of the drug to be legalized.
She said she finds it frustrating that she isn't able to take the medication of her choice legally and has to resort to acquiring it criminally if she is to have it at all.
Jeff Ditchfield embarked on his journey to medical cannabis advocacy when a friend of his found herself in a similar situation more than 15 years ago.
"Back in 2000 a close friend of mine who was suffering with MS was robbed at knifepoint attempting to buy some cannabis to treat her condition," Jeff said.
"The incident had a very profound effect on her and I was appalled that she had to experience something like this attempting to obtain, as she calls it, her special medicine."
Jeff, who lived in Rhyl at the time and had taken an early retirement, studied cannabis cultivation and began producing his own cannabis to supply to his friend.
The word soon spread and Jeff found himself supplying cannabis for many others suffering from severe, painful illnesses.
Jeff said: "Probably within a year of helping my friend I was helping about 20 friends of hers and that's how Bud Buddies really came about."
Jeff established Bud Buddies, a non-profit organization that in its early days supplied cannabis openly from possibly Wales' first private members' cannabis club, Beggars Belief in Rhyl.
He opened the doors of the shop in 2003 and said he received a great deal of local support as well as media and political interest in his endeavor.
The shop operated from the site for the next four years, with Jeff repeatedly facing legal action, but he said he was happy helping vulnerable people access their choice of medicine without having to come into contact with criminal gangs.
Eventually Jeff was found guilty of several drugs charges and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service.
Since then Bud Buddies has shifted its focus and now concentrates on helping people establish a self-sufficient cannabis supply. Around 40 volunteers across the UK provide advice for people to grow cannabis and produce oils for use medicinally.
Jeff said Bud Buddies had also adjusted the cases they prioritize, now mainly assisting the parents of seriously ill children with cancer produce cannabis products for medicinal use.
"Personally I think the whole drug policy in the UK is crap," Jeff said. "I can't find a better word for it.
"I think issues with drugs should be a health issue and not a matter for enforcement by the police.
"All prohibition does is create a black market, endanger people who consume drugs, and of course fund criminality."
Jeff and Sue are not alone.
In recent years politicians who have long been advocates of drug reform have been growing ever-more vocal in their objection to the status quo.
In October Labor MP for Newport West Paul Flynn's 10-Minute Rule Bill called for the legalization of the "production, supply, possession and use of cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal purposes".
He said: "Until 1973 tincture of cannabis had been medically available for over 100 years in the UK. In its natural form it has been used for 5,000 years as a medicine in all continents.
"In the sixties our country was swept along with the international hysteria provoked by President Nixon's doomed missionary zeal to eliminate all illegal drugs use.
"My bill is a simple one to move cannabis from a schedule that defines the drug as of no medicinal benefit to a second schedule that would permit its use for therapeutic reasons."
Mr Flynn's bill — which is unlikely to become law unless it receives support from the UK Government — received its first reading in October.
It is due to go before MPs again in February.
"The arguments are now irresistible," he said. "Recent parliamentary debates have been dominated by those who believe that prohibition has failed.
"I hope my party will be the first major one to adopt policies that escape from the evidence-free, prejudiced errors of the past 50 years. The example of world public opinion will rapidly sweep aside the grievous errors and waste of prohibition."
In 2014 Wales became the first country in the UK to approve the prescription of cannabis-based Sativex on the NHS.
It is given to those suffering from MS spasticity but is reportedly difficult to meet the requirements for the prescription.
Long-time advocate Leanne Wood AM, along with Mark Isherwood, Mike Hedges and Rhun Ap Iorwerth, have tabled a motion calling for the Welsh Government to ask the UK Government to reschedule cannabis for medicinal purposes.
The motion is scheduled to be debated in the Senedd on January 17.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Cannabis gran sprinkles drug on cheese and toast and calls for it to be legallised - Mirror Online
Author: Marcus Hughes
Contact: Mirror Online: The intelligent tabloid. #madeuthink
Photo Credit: Rob Browne
Website: Mirror Online: The intelligent tabloid. #madeuthink
Sue Cox has been battling Multiple Sclerosis (MS) since 2014 but says the only thing that has ever helped ease her discomfort is the illegal drug.
The 65-year-old says everything else she has been prescribed with - from nerve blocking medications to morphine - did nothing to curb her symptoms.
"To be quote honest, the side effects were too bad and for me they don't work," she told Wales Online.
"But I smoked cannabis as a 17 or 18-year-old and basically I knew how it made me feel then.
"It relaxes you. That's it in a nutshell. Your muscles feel totally tight all the time and then you will have a spasm which is quite painful and you want to try and avoid that.
"And I find that the cannabis can help with the tension in the muscles."
Sue, who prefers to smoke her cannabis but occasionally enjoys it "sprinkled on a bit of cheese on toast", has joined an ever-growing chorus of patients, campaigners, and politicians in Wales who are calling for the therapeutic use of the drug to be legalized.
She said she finds it frustrating that she isn't able to take the medication of her choice legally and has to resort to acquiring it criminally if she is to have it at all.
Jeff Ditchfield embarked on his journey to medical cannabis advocacy when a friend of his found herself in a similar situation more than 15 years ago.
"Back in 2000 a close friend of mine who was suffering with MS was robbed at knifepoint attempting to buy some cannabis to treat her condition," Jeff said.
"The incident had a very profound effect on her and I was appalled that she had to experience something like this attempting to obtain, as she calls it, her special medicine."
Jeff, who lived in Rhyl at the time and had taken an early retirement, studied cannabis cultivation and began producing his own cannabis to supply to his friend.
The word soon spread and Jeff found himself supplying cannabis for many others suffering from severe, painful illnesses.
Jeff said: "Probably within a year of helping my friend I was helping about 20 friends of hers and that's how Bud Buddies really came about."
Jeff established Bud Buddies, a non-profit organization that in its early days supplied cannabis openly from possibly Wales' first private members' cannabis club, Beggars Belief in Rhyl.
He opened the doors of the shop in 2003 and said he received a great deal of local support as well as media and political interest in his endeavor.
The shop operated from the site for the next four years, with Jeff repeatedly facing legal action, but he said he was happy helping vulnerable people access their choice of medicine without having to come into contact with criminal gangs.
Eventually Jeff was found guilty of several drugs charges and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service.
Since then Bud Buddies has shifted its focus and now concentrates on helping people establish a self-sufficient cannabis supply. Around 40 volunteers across the UK provide advice for people to grow cannabis and produce oils for use medicinally.
Jeff said Bud Buddies had also adjusted the cases they prioritize, now mainly assisting the parents of seriously ill children with cancer produce cannabis products for medicinal use.
"Personally I think the whole drug policy in the UK is crap," Jeff said. "I can't find a better word for it.
"I think issues with drugs should be a health issue and not a matter for enforcement by the police.
"All prohibition does is create a black market, endanger people who consume drugs, and of course fund criminality."
Jeff and Sue are not alone.
In recent years politicians who have long been advocates of drug reform have been growing ever-more vocal in their objection to the status quo.
In October Labor MP for Newport West Paul Flynn's 10-Minute Rule Bill called for the legalization of the "production, supply, possession and use of cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal purposes".
He said: "Until 1973 tincture of cannabis had been medically available for over 100 years in the UK. In its natural form it has been used for 5,000 years as a medicine in all continents.
"In the sixties our country was swept along with the international hysteria provoked by President Nixon's doomed missionary zeal to eliminate all illegal drugs use.
"My bill is a simple one to move cannabis from a schedule that defines the drug as of no medicinal benefit to a second schedule that would permit its use for therapeutic reasons."
Mr Flynn's bill — which is unlikely to become law unless it receives support from the UK Government — received its first reading in October.
It is due to go before MPs again in February.
"The arguments are now irresistible," he said. "Recent parliamentary debates have been dominated by those who believe that prohibition has failed.
"I hope my party will be the first major one to adopt policies that escape from the evidence-free, prejudiced errors of the past 50 years. The example of world public opinion will rapidly sweep aside the grievous errors and waste of prohibition."
In 2014 Wales became the first country in the UK to approve the prescription of cannabis-based Sativex on the NHS.
It is given to those suffering from MS spasticity but is reportedly difficult to meet the requirements for the prescription.
Long-time advocate Leanne Wood AM, along with Mark Isherwood, Mike Hedges and Rhun Ap Iorwerth, have tabled a motion calling for the Welsh Government to ask the UK Government to reschedule cannabis for medicinal purposes.
The motion is scheduled to be debated in the Senedd on January 17.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Cannabis gran sprinkles drug on cheese and toast and calls for it to be legallised - Mirror Online
Author: Marcus Hughes
Contact: Mirror Online: The intelligent tabloid. #madeuthink
Photo Credit: Rob Browne
Website: Mirror Online: The intelligent tabloid. #madeuthink