A FATHER from Farnworth who uses marijuana to ease his pain is supporting a call by MPs to legalise medical cannabis use.

The man in his 40s, who did not want to be identified to protect his children, said he smokes the drug every day for pain relief.

His long list of ailments includes diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, high blood pressure, stiffness and tenderness, asthma, neuropathic nerve damage, arthritis, joint pain, depression, anxiety and muscular pain.

The father spoke out after the all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform recommended decriminalising cannabis use for medical purposes in a report called Access to Medicinal Cannabis: Meeting Patient Needs, produced after a seven-month inquiry.

He said: “I’m not talking about legalisation for recreational use but about medicinal use for patients — people like myself who suffer from debilitating conditions on a daily basis.”

The father had to stop full-time work around eight years ago due to his illnesses and now relies on benefits. He reluctantly turned to cannabis about six years ago out of desperation.

He said: “I have been on normal Tramadol medication over the years and the only pain relief you get is for neuropathic pain.

“I take 400mg a day. That’s a pretty big dose.

“I use 1g of cannabis bush, or two joints, a day and I can reduce my Tramadol to 200mg a day.

“If I feel pain in the morning, I’d smoke half a cannabis cigarette and that will keep me pain-free for about four or five hours, and I top it up if need be.
“There are no bad side effects. If I smoke, it relieves me, I feel less anxious and more social and get some feeling back in my extremities where I have nerve damage associated with the diabetes.

“It allows me me to move a little more freely.

“To be honest, without cannabis I would end up either paralysed in bed or sleeping with a ventilator and my lung capacity has increased since I started on cannabis.”

The man began cultivating marijuana plants in his own property with the aid of intensive lighting and heat equipment and stockpiled harvested leaves for his own supply.

It came after he wanted to avoid venturing out to buy from an unknown drug dealer. But he was caught this summer.

He said: “If I have to buy it, it could cost up to £100 a week.

“I was worried about being pulled up by the police and I worried about the stigma it can cause for my children.

“Buying from street dealers costs a lot of money and you don’t know what you’re smoking and what’s been put into growing it and it could cause lots of problems with your health so rather than keeping paying out for that I decided to grow it.

“I grew four plants so I wasn’t needing to go to street dealers and attracting crime to my area.

“When the police knocked on my door I had three plants ready for harvesting and I accepted a caution. After being ‘busted’, I joined the United Patients Alliance’s North West Group that campaigns for access to medicinal cannabis for patients with chronic conditions.”

People can access medicinal cannabis in 11 countries in the EU as well as several US states and various South American nations.

In most cases it is available on prescription on the doctor’s discretion for a limited number of conditions.

The Farnworth campaigner would like to see British patients prescribed medicinal cannabis provided through either collecting a prescription through specialist dispensaries or being given vetted seeds to be able to cultivating a few plants at home.

In The Netherlands a licensed variety of cannabis called flos is cultivated under strict horticultural, medical and security conditions to ensure purity and consistency and one company is developing an e-cigarette for cannabis vapour. He said: “There’s a good body of evidence in favour of it. There are lots of people suffering and although there’s a criminal side there’s a medicinal side that people need and can’t get legally.”

He argued the Government is hypocritical because cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco and pointed out the huge amount of public money already happily spent policing alcohol-fuelled violence and dealing with the health complications of alcohol and tobacco consumption.

The report of the all-party group, co-chaired by Green MP Caroline Lucas and Baroness Meacher, asked the Government to reconsider its approach to medicinal cannabis.

It said: “There is now a sound evidence base for such a policy.”

“Legalisation and licensing will promote the health and welfare of very sick people and the policy respects human rights and public health values. 

“We hope that this report will persuade Government ministers and politicians of all parties to support the proposed reforms.”