As a mother, I too have done a U-turn on cannabis
Do you live with a criminal? If you have a teenager or 20-something around the house I wouldn’t be in a hurry to answer no to that question if I were you. Chances are your offspring has committed an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Possession of cannabis carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. Why, then, are there so few prosecutions for smoking weed? The answer must be that even a government as blundering and tone-deaf as this one would not think it was clever to give criminal records to the children of middle-class voters and, dare I say it, Conservative MPS.
As William Hague wrote so persuasively in these pages yesterday, the war against cannabis has been “comprehensively and irreversibly lost”. I could not agree more. For some time, like Lord Hague, I have believed that the only sensible course is to decriminalise cannabis, which has the dubious distinction of being a “dangerous” drug that does far less harm than most legal ones. Indeed, a major report last week by the World Health Organisation called marijuana “a relatively safe drug” that causes no significant health issues, only “euphoria, laughter and talkativeness”.
I realise that older readers may be choking on their Shreddies, but please consider this. Every day, thousands of NHS patients are given diamorphine to relieve their suffering. No one has ever suggested that because the drug, also known as heroin, can be used recreationally it should be denied to cancer patients. Yet 12-year-old Billy Caldwell, who is afflicted with life-threatening epileptic seizures, had his comparatively mild medicinal cannabis oil confiscated at Heathrow because it’s illegal in the UK. You can well imagine the despair of Billy’s mother, Charlotte, who had travelled to Canada to fetch supplies of a substance that could mean the difference between life and death for her precious boy. At least, you could well imagine it if you were equipped with the full complement of human feelings who would crawl over broken glass to preserve a child from pain.
Sadly, that doesn’t seem to include our Prime Minister, who is said not to like hearing the word “cannabis” uttered in her presence. Perhaps the fastidious Mrs May should try spending 24 hours as Charlotte Caldwell, who sleeps right next to Billy every single night in case he has a seizure. That’s 12 years of sleeplessness and self-sacrifice and all this mother (one of hundreds in the same situation) asks is to be granted access to a drug that is not only legal in many countries, but actually manufactured here in the UK for export!
Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, sensibly elected to show leniency, granting the Caldwells three weeks’ supply “not to be taken home”. He said: “This is a very complex situation, but our immediate priority is making sure Billy receives the most effective treatment possible in a safe way.”
Sorry, but it’s not very complex at all. Give the child the medicine he needs, for crying out loud! No reasonable person in the country would object. In the Commons, Nick Hurd, a minister of state at the Home Office, announced plans for an expert clinicians’ panel to advise ministers on applications to prescribe cannabisbased medications. He told MPS: “Both the Home Secretary and I, as fathers… have of course been profoundly moved by Billy’s story as well as others like it.”
Messrs Javid and Hurd are two members of the Government I admire, but this slippery ordure is beneath them. The only reason to appoint an “expert panel” is to kick the can down the road. Their plan has nothing to do with relieving the suffering of children like Billy Caldwell and everything to do with politicians’ fear of appearing to be “soft on drugs”. That fear is no longer just misplaced, it risks making those who defend the law look cruel and absurdly out of touch. Cannabis is as freely available as cigarettes and alcohol in schools, universities and on every street corner. Lots of vegan kids actually choose weed as the healthier, herbal option!
Let me put my cards on the table. I have never used illegal drugs (OK, three-and-a-half spluttery puffs in 1980). I’d rather my children didn’t use an illegal drug. But the truth is I find myself struggling to mount a defence when my 18-year-old tears into the hypocrisy and idiocy of classifying cannabis as a Class B drug. (Between 2004 and 2009 it was Class C, which removes the threat of arrest, until Gordon Brown got cold feet). Like the majority of youngsters, my son has seen his mates use various drugs.
Alcohol is “by far the worst, it changes personality, makes people violent, in excess it’s a poison”. Nicotine is “too addictive, gives you cancer”. The worst cannabis can do, so the argument goes, is make you devour a Victoria sponge with your bare hands at 3am. Oh, and think prog-rock is meaningful.
I reckon my son underestimates the link between cannabis and psychotic illness, a problem that has only increased with the selling of highpotency “skunk”. But he has many leading medical experts on his side, who want to see radical changes in policy. Professor David Nutt, head of the advisory council on the misuse of drugs, criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B from C because the effects simply didn’t justify it. After being sacked for telling an inconvenient truth, the professor accused ministers of “devaluing and distorting scientific evidence” and said drugs classification was being politicised. When he was leader of the Conservative Party, William Hague advocated a “zero tolerance” stance on cannabis. Now, he has done that rare and wonderful thing for a politician: admitted he has changed his mind. Me too. As a mother, I cannot, hand on heart, tell my kids that a drug that offers marvellous relief to everyone from a 70-year-old suffering chronic arthritis to an infant with epilepsy, should remain banned.
Canada just became the first G7 country to vote to legalise and regulate cannabis. It’s an excellent example of a nation adapting to a new reality in the 21st century. Regulated cannabis markets can cut out the evil dealers, control the quality of the product and improve public health. If the UK followed Canada, it could earn the Treasury an extra £3.5billion a year. Money that could be ring-fenced for desperately needed health services.
Seventeen countries around the world, including Germany and Italy, have approved cannabis for medical use. The British company, GW Pharma, already has a cannabis medication available on prescription in Europe and its CBD spray is expected to be approved any day now by the US Food and Drug Administration. The spray is called Sativex, is licensed in the UK for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and is available at deafening expense.
For politicians to continue to deny children like Billy Caldwell a medicinal cannabis in which Britain leads the world while expecting them to ingest highly toxic pharmaceuticals is obscene. Other words spring to mind: Immoral. Heartless. Despicable. Feel free to add your own.
Why should young people heed an increasingly senseless and unjust law made by these fearful, uptight hypocrites? Can I recommend the Prime Minister and her Cabinet have another look at the evidence while partaking of a product whose dangerous side-effects are euphoria, laughter and talkativeness? Chill, chaps. The kids are all right.
Perhaps the fastidious Mrs May should try spending 24 hours as Billy’s Caldwell mother