No reason to punish people for using things to their benefit unless they harm others.

Almost everything is life can pose a risk to some people but that is no reason to punish other people for using things to their benefit unless they harm others. Punishing a person simply for growing or possession of a plant for their own use is a total misuse of law, injustice and breach of Human Rights that allow people a Private Life.

To punish a person such as Mr French, who claims to be using cannabis to alleviate dreadful pain an symptoms of MS would be an outrage, as it is that so many other victimless cannabis users have been and are being fined and even sent to prison.

There is now irrefutable medical evidence that cannabis has medicinal vale for a large number of ailments and evidence that risk is very small, far smaller than many pills prescribed by doctors - pills that often have side-effects that require other pills to counteract.

The side-effect of consuming cannabis is at best a feeling of relaxation and at worse the munchies.

In fact, The UK and other Governments, even though they deny that cannabis has any medicinal uses, now allow the production and sale of the whole-plant extract in the form of alcohol solution in a spray, called Sativex.

I have yet to see any explanation of how a medicine can be produced by simply dissolving and filtering a plant with no medicinal use, in alcohol!

And in Netherlands and other countries, cannabis bud is available on a doctors' prescription and bought at pharmacies.

Unfortunately the law gives monopoly to the pharmaceutical companies and unfortunately there products are far more expensive than the cost of growing the cannabis at home or even buying in Dutch Coffeeshops.

But what it boils down to for me - irrespective of benefit or risk of harm through use - why should the law punish people that engage in activities that do no harm or pose no risk to others or their rights?


Call for cannabis legalisation at Portsmouth event
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/health/local-health/call-for-cannabis-legalisation-at-portsmouth-event-1-6529353 
The News Portsmouth, 19 January 2015

WE must fight to legalise cannabis for the sake of improving our lives.

That was the message yesterday from people with a range of health problems who revealed that taking the drug means they are not left in constant pain.

Patients were given the opportunity to share their experiences during an open discussion on the topic of cannabis legalisation at Fratton Community Centre, in Portsmouth.

Clark French, 29, of Brighton, who was diagnosed with MS five years ago, said taking cannabis has eased the chronic pain that comes with the disease.
He told the audience: ‘MS is an awful disease, it’s horrible, I can’t even bring about the words to explain it.

‘I am in pain all the time.
‘When I use cannabis however, I am in less pain.
‘It doesn’t take the pain away completely, but cannabis gives me a life again and gives me the ability to stand up and share my story.’
Mr French, of United Patients Alliance, which set up the event, added: ‘It’s not right that it is not legal – we need to get together and fight.
‘It’s not cannabis we are fighting for, but our lives.’
Angela Came, 44, of Petersfield, said the drug helps her cope with depression, psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘I didn’t start taking it until after I was diagnosed and I didn’t start taking it regularly until two years ago,’ she said.
Mel Clarke, 53, of Southsea, who has MS, said smoking cannabis has changed her life whereas painkillers ended up doing more harm.
Mrs Clarke said she first smoked cannabis on a trip to Amsterdam.
Alex Fraser, 24, who was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 19, said while critics may feel he should just take legal painkillers, they make his condition worse.
‘There are a lot of things I can’t eat, I can’t drink, there’s a whole list. And I know that what I do eat, it’s still going to be hard,’ he said.
‘If I smoke a joint or smoke a joint after a meal, I feel so much better.’