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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Mum's plea to legalise cannabis
Lancashire Evening post
Thursday 19 Apr 2007 A mother has called for cannabis to be legalised after she was caught growing the drug for medicinal purposes. Diane McHugh, 39, says she used the drug to "wean herself off Seroxat", an anti-depressant to which she was addicted for 12 years. Speaking from her home in Ribble Close, Freckleton, the mother-of-three defended her actions, insisting she was no criminal and saying it was a "pathetic attempt at growing cannabis". She said: "I was addicted to Seroxat for 12 years. It was a horrible drug which ruined my life, and I desperately wanted to get off it." McHugh was prescribed the drug after her mother died of cancer aged 45 and her 50-year-old father died after falling off a roof. She was extremely depressed, and at that time Seroxat was described as "sunshine in a bottle". Now, however, court cases are proceeding over the drug's alleged side effects. Prosecutor Pam Smith told Blackpool Magistrates that on January 24 police visited McHugh's home after a tip-off. They found 13 cannabis plants in the conservatory and 30 plants in a room off the kitchen. McHugh says most of them were dead, but she pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and was fined £130. She said: "A friend gave me some cannabis which contained seeds, so I started growing it to get off the anti-depressants. "I was having suicidal thoughts and suffering from fainting fits. I couldn't function properly without Seroxat. "I'm not a drug dealer. I live in a nice area and it was a pathetic attempt at growing cannabis. "The law is ludicrous and the doctors are the criminals in my eyes for allowing me to take Seroxat for 12 years." Malcolm Cartwright, defending, said: "The prosecution makes it sound like a relative little market garden of cannabis, but most of the plants were dead. "Since her arrest she has not smoked cannabis." http://www.lep.co.uk/lancashire-news?articleid=2715087 -- LCA on Myspace; http://www.myspace.com/cannabis_people_uk
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