Self medicating cannabis user told to find other pain remedies

A DRUG user who consumed cannabis as pain relief for severe injuries has avoided an immediate jail term.

Brenton Wayne Fussell, 58, was caught in possession of the plant, which was eight times the commercial quantity amount, on March 15 and was handed a nine-month jail term.

The NT Supreme Court heard Fussell sustained 176 fractures in a motorbike crash in Perth in 2009. He used cannabis to self medicate the pain.

He was hospitalised for three months and still suffers pain in his pelvis which also made walk.

Fussell’s nine-months jail sentence was immediately suspended but Justice Stephen Southwood warned him the use of cannabis would result in a visit to prison. “So you are going to have to rely on your doctor to come up with other it difficult for him to methods and treatment for the management of your pain and you are not going to be able to use cannabis until it is properly legalised,” he said.

Justice Southwood said it was apparent Fussell was “self medicating. Only one large plant seems to have been grown with four seedlings underway and two that do not seem to have got going.”

He said Fussell’s GP was aware he was using cannabis for pain relief.

“He still suffers pain from time to time and his pelvis fracture makes it difficult for him to walk.”

Fussell also has been wear- ing a morphine patch.

“She (the GP) states that she is aware that the offender has been using marijuana for medical purposes and she is also aware of the medical profession’s growing interest in this area in the management of chronic pain. I find there are particular circumstances.”