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UK: Jury stays hung on cannabis question
The Citizen (Gloucestershire)
Thursday 03 Jul 2003 Jurors could not make up their minds this week on whether a 55-year-old St Briavels woman who claimed she grew cannabis to help ease her back pain was guilty of cultivating the drug. After deliberating for nearly three hours, the jury at Gloucester Crown Court said that they could not decide whether Gwendolen Roskell was guilty or not. Dismissing the panel, Judge David Ticehurst announced that prosecutors had a week to decide whether they want to have a retrial or let the matter lie. Giving evidence during her two-day trial on a charge of cultivating cannabis, Roskell told the court that she was still taking the drug to ease her chronic back pain. She denies growing cannabis for her own pleasure or for distribution to others. "I have had to buy a quantity of cannabis which I have made into a tincture," she said. "I bought it about six weeks ago. I put about a quarter of an ounce in a jam jar then make the tincture in there." Asked how much of the concoction she consumed, Roskell - who also admitted smoking the drug - told the court she had drunk roughly 'half a bottle' since Sunday. A great believer in holistic medicine and 'whole plant' therapy, the defendant said she had begun using cannabis after injuring her back in a car accident in 1978. "When I first tried it back in the 1960s I wasn't that impressed with it," she said. "It was only after the accident that I discovered its assistance in relieving pain and stress. "It's not a painkiller, but it has a way of relaxing the body, the muscles and helping the body cope with pain with its own holistic balance." Roskell said she used a range of natural remedies to tackle her ills, including concoctions using Valerian and Passion Flower, as well as cannabis. She said she lost her faith in conventional medicine after experiencing a range of unpleasant side effects from painkillers prescribed for her back problems. "I was given Ibruprofen but that made my head groggy," she said. "It improved the pain but I couldn't cope with the side-effects. I felt sleepy, groggy and unable to focus." The court heard that she only took two Prozac tablets she was prescribed after hearing that her cousin, who had been given the same drug, was experiencing problems with it. A hydro-cortisone injection designed to get to the core of Roskell's back pain just made it unbearable, she said. "I prefer the whole plant approach," she said. "I believe the whole plant has a greater effect than its separate parts. "The active part of aspirin extracted in 1899 still makes the stomach bleed when it is taken, while the whole plant has a better effect." When police officers raided her home in Trow Green, St Briavels, in July last year they found a range of hydroponic equipment set up to cultivate cannabis in a back bedroom. Officers also seized 18 cannabis plants of various sizes and 14 cuttings, along with 61.28 grams of cannabis leaf.
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