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UK Scotland: Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol party candidate Yvonne MacLean is standing for election as an MP in Hamilton Julie Gilbert Daily Record Thursday 02 Apr 2015 A Hamilton woman is standing as a candidate for the Cannabis is Safer than Alcohol Party (CISTA). Yvonne MacLean (41) from Meikle Earnock hopes to be elected as MP for the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency. The party was set up last year by Englishman Paul Birch, one of the co-founders of pioneering social media site Bebo, and they have candidates standing across the UK. Mum-of-one Yvonne says she smokes cannabis herself to treat depression and wants to see the drug legalised for medicinal purposes. She lost her brother Garry to suicide in 2012. He suffered from depression and Yvonne feels the correct strain of cannabis would have helped him. Yvonne said: “Garry never smoked cannabis. He did drink. He had been off alcohol but, the night he died, he had relapse. He was also in withdrawal from medication. “Cannabis definitely would have helped him. He would have been able to take the proper strain of cannabis, an uplifting strain during the day and a strain to help him sleep at night. “For 4000 years, it’s been used as a medicine. It’s absurd to say you can’t use nature to heal yourself.” Yvonne says her personal experience with cannabis has been a lot better than with prescribed drugs. And she says she has controlled depression for a long time using cannabis. Yvonne said: “I have been battling depression since my early 20s and have been consuming cannabis. I was able to function and hold down a full-time job. “I had a breakdown in 2010 and went into the Priory. At that point I was put on anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and various other things. “I wasn’t able to function and I looked like a drug addict. I stopped putting on make-up, stopped doing my hair, stopped dressing myself and stopped going out, I’d just go to my work and go straight back home. “I looked dead behind the eyes. I was constantly shaking and slurring my words.” Yvonne lost her job at a call centre in 2013 and decided to come off her tablets.She has now come off four of them and only takes one tablet, which she says she cannot stop due to terrible withdrawal symptoms. Yvonne says she is smoking cannabis and feels a lot better. However, she does wish she didn’t have to break the law to purchase the drug. Yvonne said: “I am breaking the law, but I’d rather break the law than be in that state again. “I don’t have a criminal record. When I was 23, I was found in possession but nothing happened. “If the police chap my door, they chap my door. I don’t feel I’m doing anything wrong whatsoever. I don’t grow it and I don’t deal it.” Yvonne, would like to see a similar system introduced in the UK to that implemented in Colorado, USA. There people are given medicinal marijuana cards and can purchase cannabis from special stores. Yvonne says potential health risks associated with smoking cannabis would be largely eliminated if it was legalised. She said: “People on cannabis do better than on pharmaceuticals. Because it’s a natural product and you can grow it yourself, the pharmaceutical companies won’t make money out of it. “They try to say it causes psychosis. That is because it is unregulated.” Using Colorado’’s figures as a basis, CISTA claim the UK Treasury would make £900million in the first year of legalising medicinal cannabis. If elected for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Yvonne says she will represent their views in Westminster. She added: “I would talk about ways to help the community. Farming and local produce are issues which impact on daily life. “I think we should be more concerned about what we are putting in our bodies and what we are doing to the environment. “I would stand up for constituents in Westminster. I would be the ordinary person in the street standing up for the ordinary person in the street.” Yvonne would vote alongside the Green Party in Westminster as she agrees with many of their policies. Dr Adam Brodie, NHS Lanarkshire’s clinical director for addictions gave the Advertiser his opinion on cannabis use. He said: “Cannabis is a class B drug which can have serious health implications for users. “Short-term use can impair a person’s ability to concentrate and conduct complex tasks. It can also lead to tiredness and lack of motivation. “Long-term or regular heavy use can lead to the development or worsening of mental health problems including paranoia. “Smoked with tobacco, it increases health risks associated with tobacco use and can lead to nicotine addiction. “Very heavy use can lead to withdrawal symptoms and even heart and breathing problems.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/cannabis-safer-alcohol-party-candidate-5447907
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