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Cannabis
aerosols | ||
CANNABIS
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Cannabis -
increasingly used for pain
relief |
Marijuana, weed, grass, pot - they're all names for
cannabis. For decades people have taken the plant for fun - but sick people are
increasingly turning to the drug as a painkiller. Please see your local doctor / police officer to seek personal advice and that
you would like to grow 1 or 2 plant's for your own personal medical problem, you
don't want to be breaking the law. cannabisseeds.com
Cannabis is a powerful herb which
has been used in pain-relief for centuries. There's just one hitch - it is
illegal.
Despite this, people are risking
going to jail to send the drug to total strangers who say that they desperately
need to use cannabis as a painkiller
Pauline Taylor is a MS patient from
"At the very beginning it was my
daughter who got it for me.
"I was very worried about exposing
my daughter in that way... She could've got into a lot of trouble with the
police."
Sometimes Pauline has to go without
cannabis for months because supplies can be erratic.
But when the pain really kicks in,
cannabis helps and, as a result, Pauline says that she can at least manage to
get out of bed in the morning.
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Pauline had to smoke cannabis
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T here are
now organisations that have the courage and the guts to come forward to help
people like herself.
But there's still the problem of
legality and obtaining the drug safely.
Sixty-six-year-old Patricia Tabram
from Humshaugh in Northumberland is
This pensioner could go to jail for
buying cannabis which she adds to food which she cooks for herself and for sick
friends who live near her home.
It all started when Pat was
involved in a car crash and endured a series of family tragedies. She also
developed severe arthritis.
Her first experience of trying to
buy cannabis was bemusing and would probably terrify most old age pensioners, as
she explains.
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Gran power -
Pat Tabram is a woman with a mission
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"The first cannabis I bought, I was
told to go to a pub in
"I stood there with looking out of
place with my shopping trolley."
Eventually Pat found a dealer who
sold her a small bag of cannabis for £20.
She had no idea what to expect or
what she was really getting into.
Today she's still breaking the law,
this time to help others and to keep the clandestine supply lines
open.
"I'm just like a little district
nurse really but instead of going around with injection needles and things, I go
round with boxes of food which will keep them
pain-free."
Pat is constantly afraid of being
caught, "I'm always nervous that I'm going to bump into the
Police."
The reported beneficial qualities
of cannabis as a medicine have been known for centuries.
Medicinal cannabis was first
written about by the Ancient Chinese in Sheen Nung's Pen Ts'ao in
2737BC.
The Roman surgeon Dioscorides also
praised its medicinal virtues in 70AD whilst the English herbalist Culpeper
wrote about it in the Complete Herbal and English
Physician.
Cannabis was taken widely for its
medicinal value until the 20th Century when it was stigmatised and eventually
banned.
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The official
line from the Home Office |
Over the last five years, there has
been a re-examination of the drug's potential as a medicinal
treatment.
In 2004
Patients who took part found some
improvement in their condition, although results were
mixed.
Those who saw an improvement
reported pain reduction, better sleep quality, and a reduction in spasms.
However, progress in making
cannabis available for medical use through the NHS has been
slow.
As a result we are now seeing the
first moves to co-ordinate the supply of cannabis by special interest groups
within communities.
"I don't think people in
wheelchairs should have to go down back alleys to meet scumbag dealers to get
something which, effectively to them, is a
medication."