THERAPY OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Summary

That this House, in view of the large numbers of multiple sclerosis sufferers using cannabis to alleviate and treat their condition, because they know its value as confirmed by the BMA report on cannabis, and the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology which recommended that it should be made available to them, knowing that in the light of all this, juries have become increasingly reluctant to sustain prosecutions against the victims of this terrible disease, for possession, use or even growing cannabis, a failure which brings the law into disrepute and undermines the war against hard drugs, as the Runciman Report for the Police Foundation wisely points out; regrets that the Government refuses to hear representations from the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics and its expert advisers on the grounds that decisions must be postponed indefinitely for protracted research; considers that this unjust attempt to postpone the inevitable is an abdication of responsibility, particularly now that NICE is recommending withholding from new MS victims the only current alternative treatment, beta interferon; and recommends the Government to grasp the nettle and to stop putting MS sufferers on the front line of its war against drugs by ending attempts to prosecute victims of multiple sclerosis, or their close relatives, for using, possessing or growing cannabis, for treatment of their condition, when recommended in writing by their doctor.

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Timeline

1. 22 June 2000

   Early Day Motion

   That this House, in view of the large numbers of multiple sclerosis sufferers using cannabis to alleviate and treat their condition, because they know its value as confirmed by the BMA report on cannabis, and the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology which recommended that it should be made available to them, knowing that in the light of all this, juries have become increasingly reluctant to sustain prosecutions against the victims of this terrible disease, for possession, use or even growing cannabis, a failure which brings the law into disrepute and undermines the war against hard drugs, as the Runciman Report for the Police Foundation wisely points out; regrets that the Government refuses to hear representations from the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics and its expert advisers on the grounds that decisions must be postponed indefinitely for protracted research; considers that this unjust attempt to postpone the inevitable is an abdication of responsibility, particularly now that NICE is recommending withholding from new MS victims the only current alternative treatment, beta interferon; and recommends the Government to grasp the nettle and to stop putting MS sufferers on the front line of its war against drugs by ending attempts to prosecute victims of multiple sclerosis, or their close relatives, for using, possessing or growing cannabis, for treatment of their condition, when recommended in writing by their doctor.

   Source: Early Day Motion

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Sponsors

• Austin Mitchell · Labour · Primary sponsor

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