Subj:  UK: Drug users aim to supply pot to ease pain



Date: Thursday October 29, 1998 



Source: The Guardian, UK





Drug users aim to supply pot to ease pain 

By David Ward



Cannabis users have set up a network to supply good-quality stocks of the

drug to people seeking relief from the pain of crippling illnesses. 



More than 70 potential customers have made contact within a couple of days

of the Medical Marijuana Co-operative's launch from a flat in Stockport,

Greater Manchester.



Colin Davies, the co-op's founder, and associates in Edinburgh and

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, are part of a growing movement agitating for

cannabis to be legalised for medicinal use. Until that happens, they want

their customers to be able to stock up without the worry of resorting to

street dealers. The co-op will be run without profit by patients for patients.



"Cannabis is being regularly used for pain relief by people who have never

broken the law in their lives and have never even had a parking ticket,"

said Mr Davies.



"We want a change in the law. If we don't get it, we will have to break the

law, and we're going to let everyone know that we're breaking it."



Mr Davies was acquitted by a jury in June of a charge of cultivating

cannabis after police raided his home and found plants growing in his

bedroom. He defended himself and provoked laughter when he asked if he

could have his 18 plants back. He told the court he smoked up to four

joints a day to secure relief from back pain after a fall at work in 1994.



He now risks prosecution not just for possession but for supplying the

drug, grown at a secret location in Britain, to co-op members. "I've

decided to do this because of the amount of pain out there," he said.



The co-op idea was born after calls from sympathisers and users after Mr

Davies's acquittal. He made contact with the Cannabis Buyers' Club in Los

Angeles and devised rules to ensure that the drug goes to those who need it

most.



"We require a letter of diagnosis from a doctor," said Mr Davies, who

spends much of each day flat on his back to ease his own pain. "After

verification, patients are asked to agree to a code of conduct. The drug

must not be resold and must be used in private."



The co-op has produced an identity card with a photograph and a leaf from

the cannabis plant the patient uses. Mr Davies is so anxious for the

operation to be seen to be respectable that he says he would offer to run

it from a police station.



"The majority of people who use cannabis for medical reasons use very

little of it and only when the pain reaches a certain level. The law needs

to be addressed so that patients and their carers are no longer subject to

criminal prosecutions."



A Greater Manchester police spokeswoman said: "It is the duty of the police

to ensure that the laws concerning the supply and cultivation of drugs are

upheld."