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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Carlisle MS woman can be given cannabis drug - regulator Phil Coleman News amd Star, Carlisle Saturday 11 Jan 2020 A CARLISLE mum prosecuted for growing cannabis to treat her multiple sclerosis could be legally prescribed medication based on the drug by the NHS, says the country’s medicines regulator. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says there is no legal reason why NHS bosses should not approve prescriptions of the cannabis-derived Sativex spray for Carlisle woman Lesley Gibson. She said she was forced to grow the drug at her Yewdale Road home in Morton after local health chiefs cancelled her Sativex prescription. Mrs Gibson and her husband Mark, both 55, were this week cleared at Carlisle Crown Court of producing cannabis. A year after police raided their home, seizing cannabis plants and cannabis chocolate bars, Crown Prosecution Service lawyers abandoned the prosecution, saying it was not in the public interest. The couple began growing cannabis after the prescribed Sativex cannabis spray which relieved the worst of Mrs Gibson’s MS symptoms - including pain, body spasms, and vision loss - was withdrawn by the local NHS. Mrs Gibson said she felt she had no choice but to find an alternative source of the drug to treat her illness. In the year since their home was raided, the Gibsons have spent thousands of pounds on a monthly supply of cannabis flowers, prescribed by a doctor privately. Paying that medicine is costing them around £650 every month - paid for using a credit card. But in November, a change in the law gave NHS bodies a legal right approve the prescription of two cannabis based medicines - including Sativex. Commenting on the drug’s impact for her, Mrs Gibson said: “It meant I could live some kind of normal life. It enabled me to go out, and to medicate anywhere I wanted. Without it, things stopped working, and the most horrific is the full body spasms. My eyesight would go; my speech would go; my legs stopped working. My emotions were all over the place.” “The spray was effective in seconds. I could be having a full-on body spasm, and after two or three puffs on the spray I’d right back to where I should be. It made everything more tolerable. It’s not a getting high experience.” The decision to prosecute her and her husband was “cruel and unnecessary,” she said. She added: “It’s ridiculous that I was charged. I’m not a bad person. The only thing I’ve done wrong is wanting to be well. There are lots of people like me. This is not the way you should treat ill people. I understand that the law should be upheld. But in this case the law isn’t workable. Cannabis is a medicine now.” Mr Gibson said: “It’s all about money. We were in our own home, minding our own business and looking after our own illnesses. Lesley should be allowed to treat her illness the way other people treat theirs. We’re now spending money we haven’t got because her prescription was withdrawn.” A Nice spokesman said the organisation published fresh guidance last November which included Sativex in the list of prescribable drugs available to NHS trusts. It is not, however, among those which must be provided. “Sativex is licensed so can be prescribed by the NHS, but a recommendation for its use in our clinical guideline is not mandatory,” added the spokesman. A Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said: “Every case is considered on its own facts and merits and whether there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute. “In this case the CPS reviewed the evidence again after receiving a medical report from the defence in late December confirming that Mrs Gibson had very recently been prescribed further cannabis-derived medication. “The CPS decided that in the circumstances it was not in the public interest to prosecute either of the defendants. “Any other cases involving possession or production of cannabis would also be reviewed on their own particular facts.” https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/18150068.carlisle-ms-woman-can-given-cannabis-drug---regulator/?fbclid=IwAR2q1-qkEW_bPYZM6Iyow2kysGWCUXIvsgb_FXwIRLGu6XPM67BAdgP8ko8
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