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UK: Pain, pot and politics

SacredRain

The Guardian

Wednesday 07 Jun 2006

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It's time for medical marijuana to move into the mainstream, argues
SacredRain in her second Big Blogger post.

Imagine a life where every experience is defined by pain; on a scale of
1 to 10, the pain never falls below 3. Imagine that every move you make
means balancing the pain of action against the pain that inaction will
bring. Imagine having to move every 20 or 30 minutes but knowing also
that when you do, your muscles will feel like they are being torn from
the bones they cling to. Sleeping brings little relief: you turn, you
hurt, you wake. Every night.

Imagine being unable to cry because the pain in your face, chest and
shoulders will punish you. Imagine the pain relief you are offered will
make you an addict or dramatically increase your likelihood of
developing blood clots or having a stroke, or a heart attack but what
they don't do is relieve your pain.

Imagination isn't necessary for many thousands of people here in the UK:
those with multiple sclerosis, acute polymyositis, fibromyalgia, AIDS,
cancer, IBS, Huntington's Chorea or spinal disease. Yet relief is
available, easily, if you know the right people; if you are prepared to
become a criminal.

In Canada, on July 30 2001, the Narcotic Control Regulations were
amended and the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations came into force.
These regulations established a compassionate framework to allow the use
of marijuana by people who are suffering from serious illness and where
the use of marijuana is expected to have some medical benefit. It is now
time for us to consider such a law here in the UK.

Despite considerable scientific and medical research into the effects of
cannabis consumption on humans not one single death has ever been
successfully attributed to its use. In fact, the opposite may be true.

In February 2000, Dr Guzman of Complutence University, Madrid, produced
remarkable results concerning the successful treatment of cancers in the
brains of rats. All of the subjects not given THC (Tetrahydrocannibanol)
died. Of those who were treated 5 were cured completely; all of the
others had their lives extended by as much as 36%. The cancers were
lung, breast and a type of viral leukaemia. This discovery must be
tempered by a sad fact, this was old news. A 1974 study conducted by
scientists in Virginiahad produced exactly the same results.

Despite the Virginia results being published to almost universal acclaim
the DEA closed down that project and all others looking into the
beneficial effects of cannabis. In 1983 President Reagan ordered all
data produced by research into the medical uses of cannabis held in US
Universities dating back to 1966 to be destroyed.

In 1999 the Institute of Medicine published a detailed study into the
medicinal uses of cannabis, in which they state "The accumulated data
suggest a variety of indications, particularly for pain relief,
antiemesis, and appetite stimulation. For patients with AIDS or who are
undergoing chemotherapy, and who suffer simultaneously from severe pain,
nausea, and appetite loss, cannabinoid drugs might offer broad-spectrum
relief not found in any other single medication."

We don't want pity or sympathy, we want to be able to resume productive
lives without risking prosecution, suffering the rarity of Sativex or
the lottery of arguing "necessity" defences in criminal procedures,
costly both in financial and reputational terms. The Canadian, Dutch and
limited US experience shows that THC medicines work, without the side
effects of opiates or NSAIDs. By rejecting the advice of doctors,
scientists, lawyers and even the House of Lords, we are punished not by
pain, but by a system which refuses to admit that it may be wrong and
others may just be right.

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