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UK: Court appeal for pain relief cannabis users
Reuters
Monday 11 Oct 2004 LONDON (Reuters) - An amputee and a man suffering serious bone and pancreas conditions have asked the Court of Appeal to allow them to fight drug convictions for using cannabis to relieve their pain. Lawyers acting for the men asked three appeal judges on Monday to rule that using cannabis for medicinal purposes should not be a crime. Barry Quayle, who has had both legs amputated below the knee and Reay Wales, who suffers pancreatitis, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, are fighting convictions for possession of cannabis along with three other appellants. Their lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the court: "The primary concern in all of these cases is: should it be a crime to resort to the reasonable use of cannabis for the alleviation of serious and chronic pain? "We would say that the evidence shows that cannabis is the most effective form of pain relief for their conditions and that, in any event, it avoids the painful side-effects that are associated with more conventional forms of pain relief." The Netherlands last year became the first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug for cancer, HIV and MS. Patients in Britain, Canada, Australia and the United Sates have been pushing for similar measures. Britain relaxed its laws against cannabis in January this year, downgrading it to a relatively low risk C category drug on a level with tranquillisers and anabolic steroids. In practice this means adults caught in possession of a small amount of cannabis can be searched and may be arrested. The maximum penalty for possession is two years. Fitzgerald argued that the defence of necessity -- through which a criminal act is said to be justified in order to prevent a "greater evil" -- should apply to cannabis users who only take the drug to alleviate their own suffering. He argued that, if the defence of necessity does not extend to this type of case, then UK law falls foul of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to respect for private life. The case is expected to be adjourned until next week.
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