The order was put in place after Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard police found 41.1 grams of the class-B drug worth £175 and 19.4 grams worth £80 at the defendant's home in Dundee Road, Etruria, on October 22, 2009.
Joanne Wallbanks, mitigating, said Edge, aged 31, uses cannabis for pain relief but has reduced his intake.
Judge Robert Trevor-Jones re-sentenced Edge to five months in prison.
It doesn't sound like Mr Edge has harmed anyone due to his possession of cannabis or breach of the order - and in fact it may well be that he has little choice but you use cannabis to ease his pain .. so .. why has he been sent to prison - I cannot see how it can possibly be in the public interest and as Bob comments - at taxpayers expense
Seems the this safe plant is so harmful we lock people away? Let the punishment fit the supposed crime?
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting this issue Alun!
Sirs,
ReplyDeleteI was shocked at the miscarriage of justice in the case against medicinal cannabis user Darren Edge who was recently sent to prison for 5 months by Judge Robert Trevor-Jones at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court. ("Jail for cannabis user", The Sentinel, May 10th)
Mr Edge apparently uses cannabis to relieve pain and many people in his position, being torn between choosing whether to surfer pain or break the law by using the cannabis plant, would choose the latter. Now he has been thrown into prison along with thieves and thugs and at public expense (hundreds of pounds per week). But did Mr Edge actually harm anyone? Did he do anything "wrong" except break an unjust law?
Strange indeed, that both Court and Government refuse to acknowledge the pain-relieving and other beneficial properties of this plant that can easily and cheaply be grown at home, whilst the same Government allow a pharmaceutical company to extract the same chemicals from cannabis (dissolved in alcohol with a little peppermint for flavouring) - called "Sativex".
Moreover, The Midlands Therapeutics Review & Advisory Committee has issued the first blanket ban in the UK for prescribing Sativex, claiming that there is inadequate evidence for the drug’s efficacy and safety. This flies in the face of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's decision that the drug is both safe and effective- and where it is allowed, the NHS refuse to pay. ("Former church minister denied £6k-a-year MS drug by NHS", April 2, 2011)
Our courts seem to be about law, yes, but what has happened to British Justice?
Alun Buffry