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UK: Tory AM's support for cannabis therapy

BBC Online

Thursday 29 Jan 2004

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A Conservative politician wants cannabis decriminalised for medicinal use -
so that people in serious pain do not have to buy it on the black market.

Speaking on the day cannabis was reclassified from a B class drug to a C
class substance, north Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood said people
with illnesses like multiple sclerosis should not have to break the law to
get pain relief.

From Thursday, police will no longer automatically arrest those caught in
possession of cannabis, and the maximum penalty for possession has been cut
from five to two years in prison.

"No-one is wishing to encourage people to break the law, but the concern is
that people in pain are being criminalised when they seek what, for them,
is an effective form of pain control," Mr Isherwood said.

Stressing the difference between medicinal and recreational use, Mr
Isherwood has called for substances derived from cannabis to be available
from GPs for medicinal use on a strictly-controlled basis.

He said research was being carried out with the aim of producing a spray
containing the essential ingredients.

But, he added :"In the mean time, many MS patients, and people with AIDS
and cancer are going on the black market."

The British Medical Association, however, has taken a more cautious
position on the issue of decriminalisation.

Talking to BBC Wales on Thursday, Dr Tony Calland, chair of the BMA in
Wales, said more research needed to be done.

"You would need a re-classification of the drug," he said.

"From the BMA's point of view, we are very keen to make sure that patients
in pain have the very best pain relief available.

"I think the difficulty with cannabis is that there is anecdotal evidence
that it is helpful, but it does not suit everybody.

"It is a powerful drug, like many others, and I think before it could be
licensed for general, or even prescribed use, it would have to undergo the
same kind of testing and evidence-based kind of assessment that every other
drug does."

 

 

 

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