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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Drug helped cancer man
York Evening Press
Saturday 07 Jun 2003 A CANCER patient dealt in drugs to pay for the cannabis he used as a pain-killer, York Crown Court heard. David Flintham, 23, started taking the illegal drug as a palliative after he had surgery to remove a tumour from his back when he was 20, his barrister Nicholas Barker said. This put him in contact with other cannabis users and he started selling the drug in a small way to fund his own use. The court heard that he also tried to grow his own cannabis - but was unsuccessful because the three plants he had were all male. Flintham, of Glenside Flats, Fourth Avenue, Tang Hall, York, pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and possessing cannabis with intent to supply others. Judge Robert Taylor told him: "In all the circumstances and bearing in mind the current climate in relation to this particular drug, I am prepared to take a course which does not involve sending you to prison." He ordered Flintham to do two years' community rehabilitation and 60 hours' community punishment. The judge said that police found 35.2g cannabis, evidence of his attempts at drug horticulture and a quantity of money when they raided his home. Mr Barker said the surgery to remove a cancerous tumour had had a psychological effect on Flintham that was still continuing. Earlier this year doctors had taken emergency samples from him and he was awaiting the results of laboratory tests. He had only supplied to people who asked him for cannabis and whom he knew to be cannabis users. The money found in his flat was partly cash presents from his girlfriend and family, and partly benefits. Later this year, a court will decide if Flintham has to forfeit any or all of that money as drug trafficking profits.
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