and they "made no secret" of involvement in supplying the 150g chocolate bars.

The court also heard how the Carlisle postal depot's duty manager alerted police officers after a package 'fell open' as it was being sorted. It was later found to be laced with 3.5g of cannabis.

Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosecuting, told the court all the packages were later traced to Mr Davies.

He also said bar wrappers were printed with a website address of THC4MS which was later found to be run by the three defendants.

Mr Grout-Smith said: "They found some machinery for the manufacture of the bars - all to be used in what was really a cottage industry to make chocolate bars impregnated with cannabis."

A "cottage industry" it may have been but a good number of people, long term sufferers of MS, grew to rely on the Gibsons and their chocolate.

In itself this could have been shown as a harm reduction measure, as once the cannabis is processed into chocolate bars, obviously it can't be smoked, negating the only real 'widescale' health risk relating to cannabis.

Since the Gibsons were forced to shut down their chocolate operation, the people who used it, with very real benefits as a result, have been forced to find their supplies elsewhere, with all the risks that entails.

Disability Now magazine picked up on the story a couple of years back, but today in 2008, the points raised are just as pertinent, with sick, elderly, vulnerable people being forced to source cannabis, for some the only drug which works against the debilitating symptoms of MS, from street drug dealers.

Gone is the clean, safe method of delivering the cannabis (by eating chocolate) as patients are forced once again to smoke street cannabis.

Knowing what we know about cannabis these days, this is a gross neglect of responsibility by the government, and should be seen as a breach of basic human rights.

All around us, across the EU, our European neighbours are able to use cannabis medically, under supervision of a doctor. Yet here in the UK, the politicians make the medical decisions, and thats simply not right.

From 2009, the patients who used to use THC4MS, will face the possibility of a 5 year prison term, for seeking relief from pain. Are we really going to let that happen?

The following is an adaption of the original article from Disability Now Magazine. 

Lezley Gibson, who revealed in DN last month that she was driven to the brink of suicide by the trial, says: “If I [didn’t] take cannabis I would be in a wheelchair and I would be incontinent.”

So how are their former customers coping without the chocolate? And what are their other options?

Wayne Miller is experiencing difficulties with bladder control and muscle spasms since his chocolate supply dried up. He is a biker, but his symptoms now prevent him from riding. He consumed the Gibsons’ chocolate over an 18-month period, but has not had any cannabis since before Christmas. He says he is “really struggling without it”.

He began eating the chocolate because he can’t stand smoking and didn’t
know of any other way of taking cannabis. But now his speech is slurred and he has difficulty swallowing.

Miller’s discomfort is having a knock-on effect on his family, too. He is often “moody” and “short-tempered”, which can be hard for his 13-year-old daughter, and he is unable to help his wife with day-to-day chores such as shopping.

He has approached his doctor for a prescription for the cannabis-based drug, Sativex, but he will not know for several months whether or not he will be able to get it.

In the meantime, Miller is reluctant to walk the streets in search of a dealer, but concedes that, as a last resort, he would. “The only thing I could try and do is try and get hold of cannabis, but it’s just knowing where to get it and whether it’s going to be a decent quality.”

Niamh Eastwood, legal adviser at the drugs charity Release, says such stories show that campaigners need to lobby the government to change the law.

She says the Gibson case “highlights how necessary [a change in the law] is for people who are in pain and who find that cannabis is the best form of pain relief for them, but they shouldn’t have to go through this”.

Helen Wallage began eating the chocolate in the hope that it would “help me get around better”. She says she is “really missing my chocolate”, because it eased her muscle spasms and cramps.

She is now “back at square one” and has not managed to find an alternative. But she is adamant that she will not be venturing onto the streets to find one. “You don’t want to go onto the streets and buy the stuff because you don’t know what you are getting,” she says.

Since her supply of the chocolate dried up, Wallage has been unable to walk far and is in constant pain. She says the return of the symptoms is “frustrating” and “infuriating”. “I hate being like this,” she says.

She has tried to obtain Sativex but has failed. She has also been prescribed other pain relievers but they cause side-effects she didn’t have with the chocolate.

Wallage says that, when the weather improves, she may have a stab at growing her own cannabis and making her own chocolate.

Helen Yates, managing executive of the MS Resource Centre, says her staff have heard from “a number of people” who have been using the chocolate and are now having to cope with a return of all kinds of symptoms that they were previously managing. Now, she says, they have nowhere else to go.

“The problem now for these people is what they do about it because their only alternative is an illegal street supply, and most of them would not have the first idea about how to go about doing that.

“The biggest area of concern is that people will be buying street cannabis that may well be cut and mixed with all manner of other substances that will do them harm.”

One person facing these issues is Helen Elliott. Although the Gibsons’ chocolate was not a “cure”, it did make life “more livable”. Not having the chocolate has drastically affected her quality of life.

“My balance is all over the place, I haven’t any stamina, I’m not sleeping and the incontinence is worse,” she says. “The neuropathy in my hands and feet is constant. The cannabis chocolate certainly reduced this discomfort, which is so utterly wearing.”

She struggles to do the shopping and is “exhausted” after walking around the supermarket for an hour. Her doctor has told her there is no medication that will modify the symptoms of her ms.

‘If I [didn’t] take cannabis I would be in a wheelchair and I would be incontinent.’

Elliott “does not have a clue” where to start looking for cannabis, and is not prepared to put herself “into the hands of the dealers”. Besides, in her area, “trying to get hold of herbal cannabis is like looking for a needle in a haystack”.

Stuart Wyatt does not have ms and did not use the Gibsons’ chocolate. But he has been using cannabis for a number of years to alleviate his “crippling” pain, stop him shaking and maintain his balance. He faces a “constant battle” to find uncontaminated cannabis.

After loan payments, he has to survive on £72 a week income support, of which he spends £30-£40 on cannabis. “The necessity of food is always secondary to medication,” he says.

Wyatt is concerned that many other disabled people could be endangering themselves to get hold of cannabis. “There have been times where I have given money to a stranger in a pub, only for him to say, ‘I have to go and see a friend to get it for you.’ Needless to say, the person does not return with said medication. Other times, I have been given far less than the 3.5g that I paid for. When you are sick and unable to defend yourself, how can you confront a lowlife in a pub to ask for your money back?”

Wyatt says the “injustice” of the Gibsons’ case has inspired him to set up his own free network to distribute cannabis to medicinal users . But even if operations such as Wyatt’s eliminate the need to look for cannabis on the streets, any users still face being prosecuted if caught breaking the law.

Eastwood says: “Until the law changes, these people are going to be treated like criminals – which is completely unacceptable.

“What we would like to see is that they can do it either free in the knowledge that they can do this without being prosecuted, or that they are actually doing it legally.”

A Home Office spokesman confirmed the government’s current position. “Cannabis is a Class C drug and is harmful,” he says. “Its cultivation, supply and possession are illegal and will remain illegal.

“We have sympathy for those with severe pain and serious illnesses such as multiple sclerosis. Any cannabis-based medicine would have to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). If that body approved any products we would then have to consider seeking Parliament’s agreement to make necessary changes in the law.”

There are also issues, of course, around the availability of the cannabis-based drug Sativex, which is still awaiting licensing, although some disabled people have been able to obtain the spray individually.

‘The necessity of food is always secondary to medication’

Yates says disabled people should be pressurizing MPs and the MHRA to ensure Sativex is licensed and widely available at the earliest opportunity.
“Fundamentally, there is a pharmaceutical version of this drug that is ready to be available,” she says. “Sativex is a clean product, it’s pharmaceutically produced, you know precisely what you’re getting.”

But because of the potential cost of prescribing Sativex, she says the “cheaper and better option” is to make it legal for disabled people to grow their own cannabis for their own use.

“As long as you are not in any way in a position of supplying, I think that most people would find that morally acceptable.”
But cannabis users cannot expect any leniency from the police. A spokeswoman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) told DN:
“It is not for us to comment on whether the use of cannabis should be legal or illegal - that is a matter for government acting on the advice of the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs.”

But Stuart Wyatt says he is undeterred by the threat of arrest or prison.

“Medicinal users have been pushed into a corner,” he says. “It is now time to fight that corner!”

http://humedi.org.uk