Still against cannabis? Then listen to Val’s story
After writing last week about why I believe cannabis should be legalised, Val got in touch. Val told me she’s growing her own marijuana “next to the pelargoniums”. As you do. Never broken the law in her life (“not even a parking ticket”), but her father has terminal cancer, and all the medication the doctors gave him had the most horrible side effects, constipation and an inability to stay awake among them.
The cannabis capsules Val prepares for her 81-year-old father have worked wonders. “He’s not in pain, he can actually get out of bed now.”
The time that her father has left is to be enjoyed, not dreaded. “I would seriously be prepared to go to jail for the right to give daddy a drug that doesn’t turn him into a zombie and which gives him good quality of life,” wrote Val. “Cannabis is a plant with amazing medicinal properties but which is illegal, when lots of the drugs Dad is legally entitled to are addictive opiates that utterly wipe him out. It’s so cruel.”
I’m sure Val will be pleased to learn that, at least in the North East, prison won’t be on the cards because the Chief Constable agrees with her. Mike Barton, the head of Durham police, said this week that anyone growing a few cannabis plants for personal use in his area would not face police raids.
The ban on the Class B drug “puts users in danger, takes up disproportionate amounts of police time and gives millions
of pounds to organised crime”. After 38 years in the force, Chief Constable Barton has concluded: “An adult should be able to have cannabis without worrying what the police are doing. That happens in many states of the US and other countries, and civilisation does not disappear before their eyes. We need a grown-up debate.”
Good grief, sir! With that kind of sensible, humane approach, your time in public service must surely be limited.
If any readers remain dubious about the case for legalising cannabis, can I highly recommend The Boy in 7 Billion by Callie Blackwell? Callie’s 10-year-old son Deryn suffered from two rare forms of cancer and was days away from death when his mum gave him cannabis oil as a replacement for morphine. Unexpectedly, it kick-started the boy’s immune system. Callie risked, and still risks, 14 years in prison for supplying the drug.
On the other hand, Deryn is now 18 and in fine fettle. His mother calls him my “illegally alive boy”.
Perhaps Sajid Javid should read Callie’s book as well. Miracles do happen. The Home Office coming up with a cannabis policy that is neither stupid nor cruel would certainly be among them.