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MP pleads for ex-drugs officer's cannabis treatment
Ananova Tuesday 09 Jan 2001 http://www.ananova.com Last updated: 16:35 Tuesday 9th January 2001 MP pleads for ex-drugs officer's cannabis treatment A former undercover drugs squad officer is having to resort to buying cannabis from street dealers after she contracted MS, the House of Commons has heard. In an impassioned plea to the Government, Labour's Peter Bradley (The Wrekin) said his "desperate" constituent was a victim of an injustice and not a criminal. He told the House of Commons that MS sufferers should "not be made victims of an injustice" if they feel there is no other adequate treatment for the condition. Mr Bradley said the woman was, until recently, an undercover drug squad officer in the West Midlands Police. He said: "It was her job to pursue and to lock up the people who peddled drugs. Now, she is out on the streets seeking to secure the only relief that she can have for the pain that she suffers from." He asked junior health minister Gisela Stuart to persuade the Home Office and the police service that these people are "victims and not criminals". Ms Stuart replied that Government research was under way into the issue, involving some 660 sufferers of the degenerative disease. A report on the research is due in 2003 and the Government will make a decision on that clinical evidence, she added during health questions. She continued: "I sympathise with any patient who is suffering and feels that an effective medicine is not available. However, as in any chronic illness it is very important to evaluate the benefits and risks of treatment. The possession of cannabis is against the law for good scientific reasons in terms of acute and chronic health effects. "Any medicine ... needs to be properly tested, properly assessed and only when it is deemed to be safe and effective it then will be used within the NHS."
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