THC4MS 3 face jail for helping Multiple Sclerosis sufferers

[Lunar Loops]

The law really is an ass. This press release from thc4ms.org (http://thc4ms.org/press/pressrelease281106.htm) :

THC4MS Press Release 28th November 2006 @ 12:00hrs: THC4MS 3 face jail for helping Multiple Sclerosis sufferers

THC4MS 3 face jail for helping Multiple Sclerosis sufferers
For immediate release

The adage that a good deed never goes unpunished might have been coined for Lezley and Mark Gibson and Marcus Davies. These three are the people behind THC4MS, an organisation whose sole purpose is to provide Multiple Sclerosis (MS) sufferers with life-saving medicine in the form of chocolate bars containing 2% cannabis by weight. For this so-called 'crime', they are to stand trial at Carlisle Crown Court on the 4th December, 2006, accused of conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Lezley Gibson, who has MS, and Mark, her husband, were arrested in February 2005 when police visited their home in Alston, Cumbria and confiscated a quantity of cannabis and equipment for smelting chocolate. A full five months later, Marcus Davies, who ran the THC4MS web site and administered its PO Box, was arrested at his home near Huntingdon. In August, 2005, the three defendants were eventually charged with conspiracy to supply cannabis during 2004, until February 2005.

The THC4MS 3 estimate that, over the years since the launch of their web site in 2000, they sent more than 36,000 bars of their CannaBiz chocolate to over 1800 bona-fide MS sufferers. Yet they deny having conspired to break the law. THC4MS scrupulously insisted that their clients must prove their medical need for cannabis before they could be supplied with CannaBiz, by supplying a letter of recommendation from their doctors.

Over the years, THC4MS has received hundreds of direct referrals from medical professionals who have read about it in the press. The publication of an article by David Rowan in the Daily Telegraph Magazine on 22.02.03, for instance, prompted an avalanche of applications. Not one of the THC4MS 3 has any medical qualifications and yet they have been of more practical assistance to MS patients in the UK than the NHS.

In May 2005, the Court of Appeal ruled on half a dozen cannabis cases in which it had been argued that the accused were entitled to a defence of 'necessity' because the drug was needed for medicinal purposes. Cannabis was more effective than prescribed drugs and did not have their associated side-effects. The three-judge panel under Lord Justice Mance ruled that this claim was not proved and that medical necessity could no longer be a valid defence in cannabis trials.

Throughout the period specified in the charges against them, THC4MS operated in the conviction that they were fulfilling a vital medicinal need by supplying an effective medicine to seriously ill people, for which there was no legal alternative. Sativex, a cannabis-based medicine developed by GW Pharmaceuticals, a British company, remains unlicensed in Britain, although it can be prescribed in Canada. As such, for the past year, Sativex has been available in the UK as an unlicensed medicine and Lezley Gibson has been receiving a supply.

Its motto, 'from nature, out of necessity', THC4MS has always been clear about its mission to supply MS sufferers with cannabis chocolate. Without cannabis, people with MS suffer pain that's like having barbed wire dragged up and down their spine. Without cannabis, people with MS can't walk, can't feed themselves properly, and depend more and more upon carers. With cannabis, they regain some of the quality of life that the rest of us take for granted. Not only does cannabis alleviate the symptoms of MS, in Lezley Gibson's experience, it also appears to retard the development of the disease.

For nearly two years now, the people behind THC4MS have been slowly dragged through the courts for something that they felt morally justified and legally entitled to do - and which they did, quite openly, for five years - but for which they are now being told that they have no defence in Law. Next week at Carlisle Crown Court THC4MS will invite the jury to find them Not Guilty of breaking the Law in their conspiracy to fulfil MS sufferers' right to effective medicine.

Mark Gibson:
Lezley Gibson:
Marcus Davies:

Notes for Editors

THC4MS is a British medicinal cannabis co-operative based in Cumbria which dispenses cannabis chocolate bars free of charge to Multiple Sclerosis sufferers upon receipt of a doctors' note confirming diagnosis of MS.

THC4MS worked as a first point of contact for MS sufferers who wished to use cannabis as a medicine, but who had no access to it.

CannaBiz chocolate is named in memory of Biz Ivol, a MS sufferer from Orkney who developed the recipe and who died in September 2004.

The THC4MS website http://www.thc4ms.org includes hi-res. logo/graphics at http://www.thc4ms.org.uk/press.php

For latest details see http://www.uk420.com

[old hippie 56]

The wife has secondary progressive MS, and her neuro first raised hell about her using cannabis. Swim gave her a few web sites to look up, and noticing that the progressive has slowed a little, she eased up. It is always sad when the damn government tells us how we can self-medicate.

[Lunar Loops]

Originally Posted by old hippie 56

The wife has secondary progressive MS, and her neuro first raised hell about her using cannabis. Swim gave her a few web sites to look up, and noticing that the progressive has slowed a little, she eased up. It is always sad when the damn government tells us how we can self-medicate.

Yeah, SWISs best friend's father had MS and having tried everything legally availabe, his doctor actually told him (off the record of course) to try cannabis. This is actually quite common and there would be a lot of GPs willing to prescribe it if it were legally available. It is very sad that a government can label people in suffering and looking for some pain relief as criminals.

[Nature Boy]

Another shocking injustice. Clearly most judges won't shift on this matter. Medicinal marijuana must be made available. No amount of Marinol or Sativex can replicate the healing effects of real cannabis to MS sufferers.

[Lunar Loops]

AS a follow up, the three were found guilty (no surprises there really). Tis from The Guardian (UK) :
Couple guilty of giving cannabis to MS patients

· Drug helped alleviate symptoms, say sufferers
· Operation ran for six years from domestic kitchen

Patrick Barkham
Saturday December 16, 2006
The Guardian

A couple who gave thousands of chocolate bars laced with cannabis to multiple sclerosis patients for pain relief were found guilty yesterday of conspiring to supply the drug.

Mark Gibson and his wife, Lezley, who has the condition, said they would be forced to abandon their voluntary operation, which they said had helped more than 1,600 MS sufferers, after they were convicted of two counts each of conspiring to supply the drug throughout 2004 and until February 2005.
Their associate Marcus Davies, who ran a post office box and a website for their organisation, Therapeutic Help From Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis, was also found guilty.
The couple made the Canna-Biz chocolate, with 2g to 3.5g of cannabis per 150g bar, in the kitchen of their home in Alston, Cumbria, and posted an estimated 33,000 bars to people with MS over six years. They told the jury at Carlisle crown court that they did not sell the treatment but instead relied on donations to cover the cost of making the bars. The court heard they only provided the chocolate to people with MS and insisted that they were given a doctor's note confirming the patient had MS before they would supply the chocolate.
Two MS patients in wheelchairs told the court they had provided official medical letters to obtain the chocolate. Michael Wood, a former solicitor, said: "I continued to get bars of chocolate regularly because they were having great benefit to my condition."
Mrs Gibson told the court she had been told she would be in a wheelchair within five years after being diagnosed with MS when she was 20. Now 42, she said she took no conventional medicine and could walk without a wheelchair, which she attributed to a regular dose of cannabis.
The Gibsons made no secret of their project to give cannabis to MS sufferers during its six-year operation. While an internal police memo revealed in court concluded it would be "oppressive and vindictive" to monitor them after Mrs Gibson was acquitted of possessing cannabis in 2000, two years later the couple were informally advised by a senior police officer to take the chocolate manufacture out of Cumbria.
They were arrested in 2005 after a bag containing the bars spilled open in a sorting office and the police raided their home, where they found chocolate-making equipment. The prosecution said receipts linked to donations totalling more than £39,000 were found at the home of Mr Davies.
There were gasps and sobs in the public gallery and Mrs Gibson broke down in tears when the verdict was delivered.
"I'm absolutely devastated," she said outside the court. "I've been told what I've done is against the law but the law is wrong. Who is going to look after all those 1,600 MS sufferers now? ... I can't understand why no one wants to stand up for disabled people."
Mrs Gibson said she felt let down by the doctors and nurses who wrote letters confirming their patients had MS knowing they would then receive the cannabis chocolate but refused to speak out in favour of their work in court.
Mr Gibson said he believed he had a defence of "medical necessity" in law. But the Crown Prosecution Service has taken a tough line on the use of cannabis to relieve chronic pain, despite the downgrading of the drug from class B to class C.
In May last year, the court of appeal ruled "medical necessity" could be no defence for the possession or supply of cannabis as a pain relief.
A form of prescription cannabis has been available in spray form for MS sufferers on a special licence since November last year but many patients say they have found it impossible to obtain.
A spokesman for the MS Society said: "This case gives even more weight to the calls we have been making for properly-trialled cannabis-derived medicine to be provided on the NHS for the relief of painful and distressing MS symptoms." The Gibsons said they would consider appealing against the decision. It is not expected that they will receive a custodial term but they could face a lengthy suspended sentence and community service punishment. All three defendants were ordered to return to court next month.

[Trebor]

For fuck sake, I thought the U.K. had a scheme for medical marijuana though. Why did these people have to set up a "company"?

[Lunar Loops]

The important line from the last report as regards prescription availability is:

"A form of prescription cannabis has been available in spray form for MS sufferers on a special licence since November last year but many patients say they have found it impossible to obtain."

Not only have patients found it impossible to obtain, but it has been shown to be less effective that the 'real thing' anyway.

[grecian]

THC4MS is running a petition to halt the prosecution of its members and to be allowed to continue its work, if you agree with what they are doing please sign the petition.

http://petitionthem.com/?sect=detail&pet=2001&page=8