Anecdotal Evidence

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that marijuana is very helpful to MS (multiple sclerosis) sufferers. One couple in Great Britain was supplying 1,600 sufferers with marijuana enhanced chocolates until they were arrested.

A couple who gave thousands of chocolate bars laced with cannabis to multiple sclerosis patients for pain relief were found guilty yesterday of conspiring to supply the drug.

Mark Gibson and his wife, Lezley, who has the condition, said they would be forced to abandon their voluntary operation, which they said had helped more than 1,600 MS sufferers, after they were convicted of two counts each of conspiring to supply the drug throughout 2004 and until February 2005.

Their associate Marcus Davies, who ran a post office box and a website for their organisation, Therapeutic Help From Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis, was also found guilty.

The couple made the Canna-Biz chocolate, with 2g to 3.5g of cannabis per 150g bar, in the kitchen of their home in Alston, Cumbria, and posted an estimated 33,000 bars to people with MS over six years. They told the jury at Carlisle crown court that they did not sell the treatment but instead relied on donations to cover the cost of making the bars. The court heard they only provided the chocolate to people with MS and insisted that they were given a doctor's note confirming the patient had MS before they would supply the chocolate.

Two MS patients in wheelchairs told the court they had provided official medical letters to obtain the chocolate. Michael Wood, a former solicitor, said: "I continued to get bars of chocolate regularly because they were having great benefit to my condition."

Mrs Gibson told the court she had been told she would be in a wheelchair within five years after being diagnosed with MS when she was 20. Now 42, she said she took no conventional medicine and could walk without a wheelchair, which she attributed to a regular dose of cannabis.

It turns out that some MS organizations in Great Britain are much more sympathetic to marijuana as MS medication that similar American organizations.

A form of prescription cannabis has been available in spray form for MS sufferers on a special licence since November last year but many patients say they have found it impossible to obtain.

A spokesman for the MS Society said: "This case gives even more weight to the calls we have been making for properly-trialled cannabis-derived medicine to be provided on the NHS for the relief of painful and distressing MS symptoms."

Here is what another MS organization in Great Britain has to say:

Lawrence Wood, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre ( MSRC ) charity, said: "When pop stars receive minor fines for repeated possession, yet those affected by MS are forced to get their cannabis from street dealers in order to make their lives bearable, it is time for society to take a long hard look at itself."

Our drug war increases suffering in the world without doing anything useful to prevent drug use. It is a crime against humanity.