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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Letter: THC4MS trial (1)
Russell Cronin Cumberland News
Friday 29 Dec 2006 I sat through the first seven days of the Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis (THC4MS) trial, in which Lezley and Mark Gibson and Marcus Davies were eventually convicted of conspiracy to supply cannabis (The Cumberland News, December 22). In fact, they went a lot further than to conspire: actually, THC4MS helped up to 2,000 MS sufferers to live more normal lives. Like the jury, I saw three people in wheelchairs with multiple sclerosis testify to the benefits they derived from CannaBiz chocolate. A crucial point in the trial came when the arresting officer was shown a letter from a doctor, confirming a diagnosis of MS in one of the patients who had asked to be supplied with cannabis chocolate. The jury was not permitted to see this letter, since it testified to the medical efficacy of cannabis, which was deemed to be irrelevant. The following day, the defence brought in another 1,036 of these letters, which the jury were also not allowed to see. I wasn’t in court for the judge’s summing up, before the jury were asked to consider their verdict, and I won’t be able to read a transcript of what he said until next year, such is the efficiency of Carlisle Crown Court. I imagine His Honour Judge Phillips, in his last case as the resident judge at Carlisle, told the jury to disregard the defendants’ altruistic motives and to ignore the evidence they’d heard about the medicinal benefits of cannabis. I suppose Judge Phillips told the jury that they had no choice but to find the Gibsons and Mr Davies guilty. But I am disappointed that they complied so meekly. The law, as amended last summer – after the three defendants were arrested, but before they were charged – says that medical necessity is no defence in cannabis trials. However, jurors are not lawyers. Juries are composed of ordinary people, who can think for themselves and have a sense of natural justice. The 12 honest Cumbrians who sat on the jury in the THC4MS case were presented with an historic opportunity to put compassion before the letter of the law. They could have refused to convict the three. To their shame, the jury took only half an hour to find them all guilty. Russell Cronin Peacock St, London http://www.cumberland-news.co.uk/opinion/viewarticle.aspx?id=450013
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