Join the legal fight for British patients to access medicinal cannabis

HELP LEZLEY HERE, PLEASE

Lezley Gibson wrote:

I'm a long-term Multiple Sclerosis sufferer who successfully uses cannabis manage my condition. Yet, like thousands of other British patients, I've been unable to access medicinal cannabis through the NHS, even though it is legal and doctors agree it helps control my condition.

Now my family and I are being prosecuted for growing cannabis to manage my MS. This case isn't just about me. It's about fighting for better access to medicinal cannabis for all British patients who can benefit. Please join my legal challenge by contributing now and sharing this page with your friends, family and on social media.

Although struggling with poor health, I am determined to fight against this prosecution using a medical necessity defence and drive forward changes that will open up access to medicinal cannabis for British patients.



Case Background

In January 2019, Cumbria Police raided our house and seized 10 baby plants. I was charged with the possession and production of a class B drug. If found guilty I could face up to 14 years in prison – despite the fact that I have a UK prescription for medical cannabis to treat my MS.

When medicinal cannabis was legalised in Germany, patients there experienced similar barriers to obtaining cannabis-based medicines. Legal battles on home cultivation were key to transforming this situation - the court cases resulted in Germany's Medical Cannabis Law being passed in 2017, allowing all doctors to prescribe cannabis-based medicines and making it affordable through their healthcare system.

This court case has the potential to improve access to medicinal cannabis for British patients – but only if we can raise money enough for the legal costs.



Legal Challenge

I urgently needs to instruct a criminal defence and human rights legal team to help change the law and policy on medicinal use of cannabis.

I've got one chance to beat my prosecution. During my trial I am going to prove to the court that my use of cannabis was for medicinal reasons and that it was necessary for me to use cannabis in this way.

The law is not very sympathetic to my situation, but I hope to change the way that the law deals with medicinal use of cannabis through this trial. I believe this case has the potential to help lead to widespread patient access to medicinal cannabis in the UK and to the decimalisation of its medicinal use.

Polling shows that the public has no interest in criminalising and prosecuting patients who have been forced to resort to obtaining their medicine through illegal routes, because they are unable to legally fill their prescriptions in the UK.



Should we really be criminalising people for wanting to be well?

My prosecution represents a failure of the British political and healthcare system, rather than criminal behaviour on my part.

It highlights the logical incoherence and lack of compassion within current British law and practice on medicinal cannabis. Doctors, science, and British law recognise that medicinal cannabis can be helpful in managing and alleviating symptoms for Multiple Sclerosis sufferers, epilepsy, and other conditions such as chronic pain and nausea arising from chemotherapy.

I have a legal UK prescription for medicinal cannabis yet, along with thousands more British patients, I can't access my medicine via the NHS, or afford a private prescription costing over £1000 a month.

Ordinary British patients and families deserve fair and affordable access to medicines that allow them to best manage long-term health conditions and improve their quality of life.


How much am I raising and why?

My legal costs will cost a minimum of £30,000. If you care about fair access to lifechanging medicines in the UK, please donate what you can to fund an expert legal team in what could be a landmark court case for improving medicinal cannabis access for British patients.

I am back in court in early December and my trial begins shortly after, so we need to move fast.

Please contribute to help Lezley pay for the legal costs of fighting against criminalisation of the medicinal use of cannabis and for fair, affordable access to life-changing cannabis-based medicines in the UK for all British patients.

Thank you for you support.

UK authorities smash through Human Rights to arrest Gibson couple for growing cannabis to treat MS

In January this year Carlisle police ignored the Human Right to a Private Life entering the home of Lezley and Mark Gibson to arrest them for growing their own medicine.

Lezley, who suffers terrifying symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis and finds relief from the plant, has recently been able to get it on prescription, costing her over £1000 a month as opposed to tens of pounds cost of growing her own.

This is not the first time that the couple have appeared in court on cannabis related charges. Lezley was busted in the late 1990's but found not guilty based upon the then usable defence of medical necessity. The couple also appeared in court and were given suspended prison sentences in 2007 for supplying free cannabis-laced chocolate to other MS sufferers.

This time Mark and Lezley were growing just ten plants for their own use, in private, at home.

Meanwhile the husbands of Prime Minister Theresa May and Drugs Minister Victoria Atkins continue to reap in the profits from their shares in the businesses that grow and export massive amounts of plant material for "medicinal use" whilst simultaneously the Government denies that the plant has any medicinal value and continues to authorise the arrest of thousands of people in urgent need of this natural and remarkably safe plant.

Surely the Misuse of Drugs Act was not meant to punish people for growing plants that they find beneficial.

Surely the law ought to protecting our Right to a Private Life and our Right to choose and to practice our own beliefs, so long as there is no harm to others, their Rights, or public health.

Once again, it appears that in the UK there is one law for some and another law for others. Another sad day for British Justice


Carlisle couple accused of cultivating cannabis plants at home appear in court (Mark and Lezley Gibson)

MS Sufferer Cleared Of Cannabis Charge 2000

CHOCOLATE-BAR DRUGS TRIO ESCAPE PRISON SENTENCE 2007

Farce and corruption: drugs minister Victoria Atkins MP recuses herself from drugs debate 'due to my husband's business interests'

Theresa May’s Husband Set To Profit From New Cannabis Medicine After Government Relaxes Ban

How Britain became the world's largest exporter of medical marijuana

CANNABIS and HUMAN RIGHTS

HISTORY: THC4MS - Lezley Gibson

Taken from "Out of Joint - 20 Years Campaigning For Cannabis"


LEZLEY GIBSON

Lezley Gibson, who suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, the wife of Mark Gibson, had been busted for using cannabis in 1996 and had been found not guilty and vowed to continue using cannabis.

 Lezley and Mark Gibson

I'll never give up cannabis, says MS sufferer
News and Star, Carlisle, UK
4 March 1998
Author: Kelly Eve

Every time Lezley Gibson lights up she's breaking the law.  She's a vital statistic in the growing campaign to legalise cannabis for therapeutic reasons.  Here Lezley explains to reporter KELLY EVE why she'll never give up the ganja.
LEZLEY Gibson was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 14 years ago and told she would be in a wheelchair within five years.
Today, without a wheelchair or crutch in sight, 33-year-old Lezley believes her healthy condition is down to the success of her own prescribed medicine - cannabis.
Lezley has been smoking cannabis for the last 10 years and smokes up to three joints a day.
She insists she does not get stoned, but the drug, which has been illegal since 1971, relieves her symptoms although there is no medical evidence to prove this.

ATTACKS

She said: "Without a doubt I think it is cannabis that has kept me well.
"I am not prepared to stop smoking cannabis so someone can see me being ill.
"Before the cannabis I used to have very severe attacks, but after I started smoking it I have had at worst a mild attack - no loss of speech, sight or use of a limb."
Lezley has no need for the drugs doctors could prescribe her and she does not visit specialists or GPs to monitor her condition.
She had previously been prescribed steroids and ballooned to 14 stones after her release from hospital in 1984.
She said: "I never go to the doctors now or to my specialist.  I smoke my pot.  I do not bother anybody.
"Most people can go to their doctors and get something, but I can't.
"I feel the Government are depriving me of my medicinal drugs so they should be held responsible somewhere along the line."
Originally from Carlisle, Lezley now lives in Alston with her husband Mark.  Her condition and treatment are common knowledge in the town.
Lezley said: "People are being a lot more open now.  Two old ladies in my local post office in Alston even said we were doing well."
But the couple live in constant fear of being raided by the police and have been in trouble in the past.

TROUBLE

Lezley said: "About eight years ago I got a two-year conditional discharge from Carlisle Crown Court.  My husband has been in trouble because of me as well.
"I never even had detention at school.  When I was arrested I was so scared.
"I could not believe it.  I thought it was a mistake.  Why did they want to arrest me? I wasn't doing anything to anyone."
Lezley was told in February 1984 at the age of 20 that she had multiple sclerosis.
Doctors advised her to shelve plans she had made to open her own hair salon, Blitz, on Dalston Road in Carlisle.
But with her family's support she opened the salon and successfully sold it a few years later.

PARALYSED

Lezley said: "The symptoms started off with pins and needles for six months.  Three months later, I was completely paralysed down the right side of my body.  It went on for about three years.
"Then I read something about the benefits of cannabis and I found out as much as I could before I started smoking it."
Lezley is now helping raise the profile of Therapeutic Help from cannabis, the campaign group set up with ex-mayor and former heroin addict Colin Paisley.

Lezley's was one of those terrible cases where the CPS seemed to go all-out to intensify her pain and derive her of her medicine.

MS sufferer to be prosecuted over cannabis
News and Star, Carlisle, UK
24 November 1999
Author: Phil Coleman

MS SUFFERER TO BE PROSECUTED OVER CANNABIS

A CUMBRIAN multiple sclerosis has been told she will be prosecuted over an allegation that she possessed cannabis.
Lezley Gibson, 35, is a secretary for former mayor Colin Paisley, who is standing in the Kensington and Chelsea by-election as a candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.  The prosecution decision comes two months after police raided Mrs Gibson's home in Alston and allegedly seized a quantity of cannabis.
Mr Paisley said the prosecution was a waste of public money.
Though declining to comment on Mrs Gibson's case specifically, he hit out at the policy of prosecuting people who clearly use cannabis for medicinal reasons, saying: "MS sufferers surely have enough to cope with without being victimised for using a herb to relieve their symptoms.
"Researchers have now isolated the chemical that can alleviate symptoms for people with conditions such as MS and glaucoma, so there's no doubt over why they use cannabis.

Condition

"People are still being arrested for using it to relieve their symptoms but the public is beginning to recognise the folly of it, as was shown by the recent case of Paul Davis, who was acquitted because he could prove his condition."
Mr Paisley called on the Home Office to issue urgent guidelines to Crown Prosecution Service lawyers, instructing them not to prosecute those who are using cannabis as a medicine.
He warned that Mrs Gibson's court appearance in Penrith next month is likely to spark public protest from people who support her cause.
Mr Paisley added: "Before the Stephen Boyd Trust closed down, I was getting calls from lots of people in this situation.  In some cases from people in a worse situation.
"To treat sick people in this way is abhorrent and it's also a pointless waste of public money."
Since police raided her home, Mrs Gibson, who has in the past criticised the way some MS sufferers are treated like "criminals" for using cannabis to relieve symptoms, has been forced to use prescribed valium.
A mother and qualified hairdresser, she has claimed that cannabis has in the past dramatically halted the progress of her illness.
The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that they would be taking the matter to court.

But in 2002, to the annoyance of the cops, she was cleared again at Carlisle Crown Court:

MS Sufferer Cleared Of Cannabis Charge
BBC News, Thu, 28 Sep 2000

Lezley Gibson says she smokes five joints a day A multiple sclerosis sufferer was cleared of possessing cannabis after telling a court that she needed the drug to relieve the symptoms of the muscle-wasting disease.  Lezley Gibson had denied one charge of possessing eight grammes of the class-B drug with a street value of around Pounds 40 on the grounds that she needed it for medical reasons.  During the four-day trial the jury heard police raided the 36-year-old's home in Alston, Cumbria, in August 1999, where they found cannabis.  The prosecution at Carlisle Crown Court argued that the mother-of-one could not use the defence of necessity because she would not be at risk of death or serious injury from her condition if she did not smoke cannabis.  Supporters cheer Graham Knowles, prosecuting, told Mrs Gibson: "Your preference is to break the law with no need to do so by buying cannabis from drug dealers because you greatly value the relief that you sincerely believe you get from cannabis.  "It wasn't necessary at any time for you to use cannabis," he said.  Mrs Gibson told the court she started smoking cannabis 12 years ago - three years after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  She had tried steroids, valium, hypnotherapy and acupuncture but none of them helped relieve the symptoms, which include spasms, dizziness and loss of feeling, as well as cannabis, she said.  Mrs Gibson added that she smoked up to five joints a day because it enabled her to have a more normal life.  She said:" It's the best chance of feeling like everybody else.  "I would use paint stripper if I thought it would make me well."  Mrs Gibson wept and her supporters cheered as she was found not guilty after an hour and a half of deliberations by the jury of seven women and five men.  Outside court, with her husband Mark, Mrs Gibson vowed to continue smoking cannabis and called for a change in the law.  She said: "I will continue to campaign for everybody else.   There are hundreds of people like me out there."  Mrs Gibson said she intended to throw a party to celebrate the verdict.  She said: "No one in my position should have to be dragged through the courts like this but I am glad it is all over.  "I feel brilliant," she concluded.
I must say that Lezley is amongst the strongest and bravest of the cannabis campaigners that I met.

CHOCOLATE

Lezley and Mark did not stop there, but went on to found THC4MS and help run, then take over, the cannabis-chocolate bars being produced by Biz Ivol.

They did not keep it secret, but let the world know what they were doing and how many people were being helped.  The chocolate bars were free and sent through the post.

Pot Chocolate; Couple Export Medical Bars

Sunday Sun, UK
Sunday, 7 July 2002

CANNABIS chocolate bars made in the North are being exported around the world, it was revealed yesterday.
Lezley and Mark Gibson set up a non-profit-making organisation to supply the controversial confectionery to multiple sclerosis - MS - sufferers, who use it to ease their symptoms.
And the couple have now decided to expose themselves as international suppliers of the cannabis-laced bars.

BEGGING

Mark said: "This is far too important to ignore.  People are suffering and we can't turn them away when they come begging for help. "
The bars are produced at a secret location in Cumbria by crumbling cannabis into melted chocolate before it is poured into a mould.
The drug makes up two per cent of each 24-piece bar.
"The wrappers on them read "150g Milk Medicinal Cannabis Chocolate, For Patients Use Only!" and warn "Keep out Of Reach Of Children."
A bar made from organic chocolate suitable for vegetarians and vegans is also available.
The products are free but are only supplied to people who can produce a doctor's note to prove they suffer from MS.

REQUESTS

The Gibsons, from Alston, Cumbria, run a group called Therapeutic Help From Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis, THC4MS.
It now supplies 160 sufferers, including people in Italy, Spain and Denmark, and has recently received requests from the USA. `
Lezley, an MS sufferer, has been arrested previously over her use of cannabis.
Now the couple are risking another run-in with the police especially after admitting sending the drug overseas.
Mark said: "It is not a matter of choice ... we feel we have to help people who are desperately in need of cannabis.
"It is for people who have run out of their supply and need to alleviate the symptoms quickly.

DONATIONS

"Recent Government papers prove that cannabis reduces the effects of MS."
The Gibsons accept donations of drugs and stamps to help with the service, which has grown quickly through word of mouth, referrals from specialists, the MS Society and visitors to its website.
Mark said: "In 12 months there have been in excess of 600 deliveries across the UK and Europe.
"We've had donations from what we call the 'growing community'.  One guy gives between £700 and £1200 (UK pounds) every few months."
Home secretary David Blunkett is expected to rubber-stamp plans to downgrade cannabis from a Class B drug to a Class C in a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday

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.’

Cannabis Protests - should they smoke in public?

This morning I listened to an excellent interview with Clark French of NORML UK and the Berkshire Cannabis Community, on BBC Radio Berkshire. 

I think Clark did an excellent interview and made some powerful points.(listen here - about 2 hours and 5 mins from the start - move the slder pop up below the video)  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01cwt0mClark also stepped up to the line by putting himself at risk, to some extent, by admitting his use of cannabis to ease his suffering from MS.

But Clark went further than that by announcing a public protest  see https://www.facebook.com/events/593588457357865/?fref=ts  on Sept 7th in Reading, UK.

Personally I congradulate Clark and hope that many people will turn up to support the gathering - of course some cannot or will not, especially if police are going to be there.  On rthe other hand others want apolice and press presence.

Regarding publicity for the gatherings, well it depends on the purpose of the gathering - whether to simply meet up and have a smoke (which may best be done in a more private venue) OR to openly defy and challenge the law or BOTH

.In the past most Smokey Bear Picnics, protests, marches etc included public toking, often in the presence of the, thousands marching through London, cannabis festivals, gatherings in Trafalgar Square, and many smaller gatherings in the open in places like Southsea, Hull, Norwich, Chemslford ... I remember in Southsea one year there would be police arrested a few smokers; the next there would be no arrests, then there would be arrests the year after.  The authorities just did not know what to do.

 In Norwich in a central park we sat on the grass and toked, and police just walked pst, about 70 t0 100 of us.  Even after it was on the front page of the local press in advance, police did nothing.  We caused no problems.

Some people may think it depends on numbers prseent at the event - the more there are the less police presence.

 But history does not suggest that - and think about how many police would turn up if there were an equivalent number of alcohol drinkers.

Then there were turn-yourself-in days (I would never do that because I did not feel I had anything to turn-myself in for). 

In London Free Rob Cannabis and Howard Marks, just the two of them, tried to turn themselves in.  One year they were locked out of the police station.  In Norwich Lewi Rodrigues tried to turn himself in but they would not take him to court.

When THC4MS was busted, over 75 people in the old LCA signed statements saying that if THC4MS were guilty of conspiracy to supply, then so were we, sent it to the Carlisle police and press.  Nothing happened.  THC4MS three were given suspended sntences for supplying 36,000 bars of cannabis chocolate through the post without profit.

When Pinky started his protests, he was worried out people getting busted, so he wanted toking to be discreet - trouble was that so few  protestsersturned up.I do understand that those that grow or have jobs or family circumatsnaces that they want to protect, refrain from such open and public chllenges to the law, but I also greatly ADMIRE those that are prepared to try to defeat prohibition in this way - arrests for small amounts, court cases, all cost money - a waste of taxpayers money, and even without any change in law we can use that to push for greater tolerance - where there is no threat or not harm there should be no such arrests.

Each to his or her own - so long as we each put in some effort in some way, I think the battle can be on many fronts.

http://www.ccguide.org/lca/activities.php

http://www.ccguide.org/events.php

PLEASE SUPPORT CLARK and leave comment and RATE those good and bad already there

PLEASE SUPPORT CLARK and leave comment and RATE those good and bad already there

http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/reading/articles/2012/09/30/63118-a-sword-in-the-side-of-prohibition/

my comment:


Well done Clark French for standing up and telling the honest truth - and to those that try to contradict that truth by saying cannabis causes this or that, you miss the point.
Most medicines have side-effects, and often the pills from the doctor need more pills to counteract the side-effects - those side effects that are possible are often listed on the sheet that comes with the pills, in small print - they range from paranoia, through drowsiness to depression, even suicide tendencies, impotence, rashes, sleep and digestion problems, constipation --- well, look for yourself.
Secondly, not ever medicine works for every person that uses it.
Clark was brave enough to try a PLANT product that helps him - that does not mean that he suffers from any side-effects, apart from maybe a "high".
Other people have said they have had bad effects from cannabis - that does not mean that they or those that benefit should be punished - and THAT is what the law is about
We have a choice here: first we must accept that cannabis is one of the most widely used substances / drugs,. possibly excluding beer, and caffeine drinks - that both have serious side-effects and are a risk to health.
People are not allowed to grow their own even in their own homes for their own use.
Therefore the only access is illegal dealers where there is no consumer protection, no quality control, no age restrictions, no credible advice, no tax on profits and possible exposure to other drugs and crime.
On the other hand, the Government could do its duty and stop spending tax-payers money chasing growers, users and dealers, and set up a system of legal distribution for adults - outlets that are controlled and the profits taxed.
Cannabis use will continue in this country because so many people find so much benefit for so many terrible ailments, conditions and pains.
We can either remove the control from criminals and protect the consumers that do no harm - or else boost the illicit market and continue to spend billions annually in the so-called "war on drugs" - which is in fact a war on people

MS suffer hits out at drugs ruling - UK Government is heartless and cruel.

"DESPERATE" is the key word here!

There are tens maybe hundreds of thousand MS sufferers in the UK alone, and many people that suffer other terrifying ailments and pains, that could benefit from cannabis.

But the Government has turned its back on them by refusing them a whole-cannabis extract medicine that cost millions of pounds and took years to be developed and to convince the authorities that it is both effective and safe, side-stepping the smoking issues by producing it as a spray in alcohol ... made too expensive for many NHS regions to allow on prescription .

Sufferers are also threatened them with arrest, fines and even prison for growing the plant in their own homes for their own use.

The recent imprisonment of WINSTON MATTHEWS is an example of just how CRUEL and HEARTLESS the law can be - 16 months in prison for growing plants - no harm to anyone - beneficial in relieving his pains from a horrific accident 40 years ago.

It's Catch 22 for these sufferers - they cannot get the expensive product of the drug companies and they cannot grow a few plants at home - and Lord help them if they go to dealers!

==

MS suffer hits out at drugs ruling

Todmorden News, February 19 2012.

DESPERATE multiple sclerosis sufferer Kiran Narang says it is criminal she is denied access to cannabis-based drug Sativex, while others are prescribed it.
NHS Calderdale’s policy is to deny patients Sativex, but it has been revealed a Calderdale surgery has prescribed it. A mouth spray, the drug contains cannabinoids, extracted from cannabis plants, which can help relieve the painful muscle spasms MS causes.
Kiran, 52, of Bankfoot Terrace, Hebden Bridge, says she is desperate for the drug as she believes it would improve her quality of life. “The pain is constant – nagging – which in itself can be exhausting. You can’t sleep. It’s impossible.
“I have been told by my GP that she would love to prescribe me Sativex but is not able to. The fact that Sativex is being denied for the majority of people seems almost criminal.”
She added: “It might keep the cost of the NHS down but it’s certainly not helping the people it’s meant to be helping. Congratulations to the doctor for taking that risk.
“I think it’s brilliant because it is a doctor actually saying that there’s a need. I do think it takes a lot of courage to do something like that – which is unfortunate.
“But it’s for GPs to be arguing.
“There are enough people that feel Sativex would be of real, substantial use to them but are told the same thing, except for these lucky people who are getting it,” said Kiran.
Sativex was approved by the Department of Health and licensed in the UK in 2012. It costs £125 for a 10ml vial – about £11 per day per patient.
NHS Calderdale rejected the drug on advice from the Yorkshire and Humber Specialised Commissioning Board, ruling it would not be routinely funded for Calderdale’s estimated 300 sufferers.

Cannabis-based MS drug rejected by NHS Lincolnshire

How ridiculous that the UK Government spent our money on testing the usefulness of whole-cannabis extract Sativex, realised that it works better than other Pharmaceutical products, allows the pharmaceutical companies to produce the medicinal solution - then the NHS service refuses to allow it for treating the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis because they don't believe it works!

"to relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis has been labelled as "insufficient"

Yet the patients themselves, those that it was tested upon, those in other countries and those few that have been "fortunate" enough to get it here, swear that it helps them.

In fact, cannabis itself has been grown and used illegally by many sufferers for many years - a few years ago Mark and Lezley Gibson and Marcus Davies were prosecuted for supplying free cannabis-laced chocolate through their group then known as THC4MS and given suspended prison sentences.  They supplied literally tens of thousands of bars of chocolate to people that said they found huge benefit in them.  The bars of chocolate, all clearly labelled, were made by grinding the essential cannabis heads and mixing with high quality chocolate and posted out.  They could do that through donations of cannabis from illegal growers without charging anyone even a penny!   The evidence of the efficacy was indisputable.

Now, exactly the same chemical constituents, dissolved in alcohol, with a hint of peppermint flavouring, produced on mass is available at a cost of £11 a day but people are not going to be allowed to get it on prescription.

Just who are these cloth-eared tyrants in the NHS?

Stephen Gibson, head of prescribing and medicines management at NHS Lincolnshire, said: "We evaluated Sativex through our effectiveness forum and we felt it was of insufficiently high quality for us to approve it for use.

"It is also more expensive than a whole range of other options we've reviewed."

I bet they did not consider herbal cannabis itself, as available in The Netherlands, many US States, Spain and other countries - at a fraction of the cost!

It is not cannabis that we need to get rid of, it's these petty  NHS that deny their patients a medicine that they themselves know helps - the decision to refuse to allow it is indeed a sad indictment of the NHS.

UK: Cannabis-based MS drug rejected by NHS Lincolnshire


Lincolnshire Echo

Monday 20 Jun 2011

A NEW drug based on cannabis to relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis has been labelled as "insufficient" by NHS Lincolnshire.

The drug, Sativex, has been approved by regulators to help relieve spasticity or muscle stiffness in MS patients.

It has been available unlicensed in the UK since December 2005.

But last year it became the first cannabis-based medicine to be licensed for use in the UK by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Sativex costs £11 a day and is issued as an oral spray. Only doctors specialising in MS, such as neurologists and pain consultants, are allowed to prescribe it.

According to figures revealed by the Department of Health (DoH), patients in Lincolnshire have been prescribed Sativex on 28 occasions since August last year.

But NHS Lincolnshire said these prescriptions have been issued to "around three or four" patients taking the drug before it was licensed.

The health authority also said it had rejected Sativex because it had not yielded effective enough results to match the cost.

Stephen Gibson, head of prescribing and medicines management at NHS Lincolnshire, said: "We evaluated Sativex through our effectiveness forum and we felt it was of insufficiently high quality for us to approve it for use.

"We referred that decision to the East Midlands Specialising Commission Group who reached the same conclusion.

"It is not approved for use by any of the PCTs across the health authority.

"We have said that for new patients we don't feel there is enough strong evidence to support prescribing it.

"It is also more expensive than a whole range of other options we've reviewed."

Maureen Patten, manager of the Lincoln MS Therapy Centre in Outer Circle Drive, said: "There are around three or four people our physiotherapist knows of that have been refused the drug in the past, but we don't know the reasons why. When these drugs come out we often know about them in advance through MS forums.

"There was quite a big thing a few years ago with drugs called beta interferons which were said to be the wonder-drug for people with MS – but there were strict criteria. You had to be under 55 years old and have relapsing and not progressive MS.

"It meant it wasn't available for about half of sufferers.

"It's frustrating when drugs aren't available for people. There are quite a few drugs about to deal with MS, but the very strong ones can leave very strong side-affects.

"Other treatments include physiotherapy and having a drop-in centre like ours where people can talk with others with the same condition."

Andy Bazley, 49-years-old from Lincoln, is a sufferer of MS and was diagnosed four years ago.

He said: "All these drugs go through trials and none of them are deemed 100 per cent effective. There's always going to be different side-effects for different people – it depends on the individual and their symptoms.

"My choice is to continue with the quality of life I already have rather than putting it at risk by taking some kind of toxic drug."

UK Government waste millions on Sativex then Health Authority refuse to allow it for MS!

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.

Sativex is a licensed treatment for people with MS who experience symptoms of spasticity and it should be prescribed to people for whom other treatments have failed.

Jayne Spink, Director of Policy and Research at the MS Society said: "Sativex has undergone extensive clinical testing over many years. This decision beggars belief. It is not the remit of local committees to overwrite the judgements about the safety and effectiveness of drugs made by the official regulators. Banning access to Sativex will condemn those people with MS who rely upon it to a life unnecessarily limited by spasticity; a potentially devastating and distressing symptom of the condition."

In my opinion, Jayne is correct:.  For the Midlands Therapeutics Review & Advisory Committee to deny access to so many suffering people is simply atrocious and ignorant, when the hard evidence from studies and trials have shown beyond doubt that Sativex, the cannabis-extract solution, is both effiicacious and safe.  Those were amongst the strict criteria all medicines have to satisfy - which Sativex has - in order to gain a license (which Sativex has).

So we, the taxpayers, contribute willingly to cover the salaries of these ignorant and cloth-eared bureaucrats!