The law on cannabis is so outdated and clouded – it’s gone to pot and needs reform

Much rests on the second reading of Paul Flynn’s private members bill on Friday advocating cannabis to be made legal for medical use. If it proceeds and is eventually passed into law, it would be a landmark day for people living with a chronic disease or in constant pain, which includes myself. For much of my adult life, I’ve had to rise each morning and battle Multiple Sclerosis. Sometimes it’s a thankless task – my legs scissored together, locked in spasm, as I fight to break out of its strangle-hold.

I’m convinced my use of the drug has allowed me to live more of a normal life than would have been otherwise possible with the constant pain. I’ve always tended to smoke it. Obviously for health reasons, it is not the best way to ingest the drug so in recent years I’ve been making cannabis oil and turning it into tinctures. A few drops of my special brew, null any niggling aches, clear my mind and help me get a good night’s sleep, spasm free. The side effects can be awful though: Sometimes I can eat like a horse and think much too positively about life – but life could be worse.
Subsequently, I’ve always been one of Pauls ‘conscientious objectors’, ignoring an absurd law on health reasons. Smoking a joint could however land me in jail for five years under our current law. For someone living with MS or any other hellish affliction that can be soothed by cannabis including Parkinsons’s, post traumatic stress disorder or cancer, the stigma of a criminal record – the price to pay for feeling better – is neither ethical or fair.
Ever since the ‘War on Drugs’ was launched in the early 1970’s, millions of people with medical problems have been getting a bum deal. Cannabis for centuries lauded for its therapeutic benefits, was unjustly demonised, tossed in with the likes of heroin and cocaine to be expunged from the reach of society. However, the war was lost long ago. It is estimated that the illegal global drug market, is now worth £475 billion year. The figure represents the total failure of the policy and excludes the (£) billions wasted fighting it.
Inevitably politicians and vested interests will keep on flogging that dead horse, but the smokescreen we’ve all been enveloped in is finally lifting. Several UK police forces, including Durham, effectively decriminalised the personal use of cannabis to prioritise resources. From 2010 Government indecision and a relaxation in enforcement of the law, has seen the illegal market in cannabis soar to £5.9bn. It is increasingly being sold online and on social media. Much of it grown by criminal gangs, who also steal £200m a year from the electricity grid, for their grow houses.
Thankfully growing public opinion supports a change in the law, especially when it comes to medical cannabis. A sky data poll showed 72% of respondents backing legalisation for medical use. It’s likely some may have been influenced by the revolution sweeping the USA and other countries across the world including Canada and Germany where the use of medical cannabis is now legal. The shift in policy has given people the opportunity to choose their medical path, allowing many to escape a prescription nightmare.
It has also provided an economic stimulus. The products sold are licensed, regulated, and taxed, bringing some order to a chaotic market, estimated to be worth £5b and likely to grow five fold in as many years. However, despite the growing evidence of its benefits, including more improved medical strains helping with pain relief for specific conditions, the UK government appears reluctant to follow suit – or so it appears.
Despite counter arguments about Cannabis being a gateway drug and a cause of mental health issues, since 1998 it’s licensed GW Pharma to produce Sativex. The medicine for MS sufferers, is derived from the cannabis plant; The majority of which is grown by British Sugar who swopped tomatoes for the herb. It is a step forward, but ultimately, it has ring fenced the development and sale of medical cannabis at a massively inflated price.
Only a handful of MS sufferers receive it: the National Institute for Care Excellence (NICE) which authorises the use of drugs by the NHS deems it too expensive (a year’s supply can cost upwards of £5k). Only those who live in Wales, and that’s a post code lottery, or who can afford a private prescription can benefit from it. The formula in each 10ml Sativex bottle includes THC and CBD (2.5mg of each) – the chief components in cannabis. It costs £125 a bottle and lasts on average 10 days.
In comparison an ounce of medical cannabis will cost me £250 and hold upwards of 900mg of each component. Once extracted into cannabis oil and dosed accordingly, it can produce 350 bottles of a near identical product, at a fraction of the cost:
Obviously by making the spray l am breaking the law – but it helps indicate the hypocrisy of the Government’s stance and its inertia in facilitating real reform. Clearly GW Pharma have invested time and research into their work – which has been handsomely rewarded. Recent testing of Epidiolex, another Cannabis based medicine for epilepsy; conjured from their weed chest, saw its share value surge to £1.3 billion.
My mind boggles at the figure. The production process is certainly not rocket science, and cannabis, a common herb to many countries, should not cost you an arm and a leg. People are just getting held to ransom by an outdated law, which benefits only the few.
Flynn’s bill will face a rocky path if it is to pass though. Big Pharma and major corporations involved in the industry such as British Sugar, will baulk at a regulated free market in medical cannabis, seeking to protect their interests. Maybe their hopes, will be channelled through government drugs minister, Victoria Atkins. She has shown antipathy for any kind of reform to the laws on medical cannabis. Could this be anything to do with the fact that she is married to Paul Kenward the MD at British Sugar!

Flynn’s got a lot of backers in his corner though, and the will of the people is a powerful entity. Legalising medical cannabis might be personal to me, but it should be personal to us all. There are over 11 million people living with a disability in the UK, and an ageing population means few will be immune from the pain that lies ahead. The benefits seen from the US and across the world, offer us a template to build upon.