A friend of mine took part in a medical cannabis trial to test whether it could help with the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. She was taking the legitimate cannabis in the trial and found that it helped her pain in a way that nothing else had ever done.
When the trial was complete, she requested funding to continue taking Sativex, as the cannabis was branded, and the funding was refused. In order to manage her pain in a way that she now knew was possible, she was forced to criminalise herself, buying weed illegally, from illegal distributors, and smoking it (also a more dangerous way to consume it than when taking it as Sativex).
Until her untimely death, she broke the law every day in order to manage her pain, and she should never have been in a position where medicating herself in that way could lead to her arrest and imprisonment.
Such a dilemma has also been the case for the family of Alfie Dingley, a young boy with a rare form of epilepsy. Alfie has up to 150 seizures a month and has had several recent admissions to hospital due to the severity of his condition. And yet, when using medical cannabis, Alfie had just one seizure a month.
The difference to a child’s quality of life when they have five seizures a day, versus one a month, is incalculable and each seizure could make him significantly more ill, or even kill him. He should not have to endure trips to the Netherlands as the only way to get hold of the cannabis oil treatment he needs and that has proven to be effective for his condition.
Alfie’s GP and his neurologist have applied for a special licence for Alfie to be able to access a medical cannabis treatment, so this is not just his parents imagining that it might help. He has the backup of his trained medical team who know him well, and the fact that such a palaver is being made of giving him access to a drug that has been demonstrated to help him is an indication of the furore over this drug that many places in the US and elsewhere are taking steps to decriminalise and legalise.
The Home Office is going to look at Alfie Dingley’s case, but it feels like the UK is being left behind when we could be taking positive steps to remove the criminalisation of people who want to use weed. As is often quoted, the stuff is significantly less dangerous than alcohol (which my country folk consume with gay abandon), and you don’t get quite so many cases of pubs being smashed up or fights in the street when people are sitting and having a toke. It doesn’t harm the sales of chocolate biscuits afterwards, either.
Of course that’s an over-simplification, but a lot of the problems associated with cannabis, such as funding more serious illegal operations when you buy it, could easily be solved by removing its illicit status. By taking away its illegality (and this can be by decriminalisation if legalisation feels a bit much), and selling it in controlled conditions like cigarettes or booze, the government can take its share of tax and people can buy it and use it safely without fearing a knock on the door from law enforcement.
For disabled people who already use it as symptom relief, this would be especially useful. As well as helping seizures in people like Alfie Dingley, it can help with pain and movement disorders and other symptoms that disabled and chronically ill people can find troubling. But if we bake it into a cake or smoke it in a roll-up, we are breaking the law and having to go to a dealer who is not exactly an expert in which strains are best for our conditions.
Contrast this with the Netherlands, for instance, or states in America where medical weed is legal, where people can get specific strains of cannabis to deal with anxiety, or pain, or to help them sleep better. The government gets a cut (it doesn’t do tourism any harm, either), and everybody is happy.
Of course, cannabis is no panacea. It has problems associated with it, such as a specific kind of psychosis that heavy users may experience, especially if they start smoking when they are young. Some people find the smell of weed offensive (I think it’s lovely), while others struggle to motivate themselves to get going if they’ve had a joint too many.
The government aren’t showing any indication that they are willing to take steps towards legalisation, and even decriminalisation seems a step too far for them to risk. In the meantime, young Black people in particular are targeted and criminalised when they smoke, and disabled people like Alfie are left struggling with symptoms they do not need to experience because of it.
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