Users Guide to Medical Cannabis
Legal Notes + Legal Contacts
A legal ‘grey/green area’ has existed for some time in British law on the use of medical cannabis, making prosecution very difficult and not in the public interest. An important test case using the ‘medical necessity’ defence by Colin Davis of the ‘Medical Marijuana Cooperative’ in 1999 has in fact made the prosecution of those possessing, growing or supplying medical cannabis virtually impossible. Since that case many similar cases have either been dropped by the prosecution or resulted in jury acquittals.
What is Medical Necessity?
If you saw someone drowning in a lake and ‘stole’ a boat to save them and the owner or police were small minded enough to attempt a prosecution you could mount a defence of ‘necessity’ which if successfully established through evidence would result in a verdict of ‘not guilty’ of theft of the boat.
If you were found in possession of cannabis, growing it or supplying it to others, you can use the same defense because you were ‘saving’ yourself or others by the use of a herb whose powerful medical properties have been known for thousands of years. To do this you must establish through evidence that there was a ‘medical necessity’ for the use of cannabis to relieve symptoms of disease, pain or the side effects of other drugs. If you can successfully establish ‘medical necessity’ you would be found ‘not guilty’ of charges of cannabis possession, production or supply - even though the use of cannabis is illegal in British law.
Persecution, prosecution & prison
Until 1971 cannabis tincture was legally available in chemists for those wishing to use it medically. Since then people have been denied access to a known medical treatment for their condition, through the threat of persecution, prosecution and imprisonment (max 14 years). This should be unlawful under the European Human Rights laws which came into effect in Britain on October 1st 2000 but this argument has so far failed to succeed in court.
Blunket Reforms
The governments 'Class C for Cannabis' strategy ends most prosecutions for possession of cannabis. Obviously this face saving retreat in the face of unprecedented civil disobedience by millions of people is to be welcomed. However suppliers will still be targeted; police will still confiscate medical cannabis user’s personal medicine and plants; the ‘liberal’ policy will continue to deny people medical treatment.
The Blunket proposals fail to solve the legal and public health issues concerning cannabis supply (i.e. dealing, cannabis therapy clinics, coffee shops, mail order, etc), production (ie growing & processing), quality (ie adulteration) and other harm reduction issues.
All of these problems could be solved by immediately ending the prohibition of cannabis for medical and recreational use, but the Government does not have the moral guts to do this yet.
Instead they seem to be buying time for the pharmaceutical lobby to adjust to the loss of revenue from drugs which will be replaced by cannabis. They will produce medical cannabis products which the government will ‘legalise’ allowing the chosen few to make billions. Buy your shares now.
Practical Realities for Medical Cannabis Users Now
What are the real choices in the real world for genuinely sick people who require good quality medical cannabis, many of whom are unable to obtain or afford supplies and are fearful of prosecution?
Today (Dec 2004) the choices for medical cannabis users are these:
1. Not use the medicine even though you know it will help because it is illegal and you’d prefer to continue suffering or die early than break the law. You will wait until medical cannabis is 'legal' before using it, even if that is way after you are dead.
2. Grow it yourself (risking a stiffer penalty for ‘drug production’). If prosecuted use, the ‘medical necessity’ defence.
3. Buy in sensible countries like Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, (risking imprisonment as a ‘drug smuggler’ on your return home). If prosecuted, use the ‘medical necessity’ defence.
4. Buy in pub or similar (usually unsuitably low quality, expensive and risky). If prosecuted, use the ‘medical necessity’ defence.
5. Buy from a trusted independent dealer (not so easy to find but better quality and safer). If prosecuted, use the ‘medical necessity’ defence.
6. Buy on the internet and have delivered by postman (possibly risky). If prosecuted, use the ‘medical necessity’ defense.
7. Join (or create) a medical cannabis club using the THC Club Protocols or similar 'Legalise Yourself Kit'. If prosecuted, use the ‘medical necessity’ defence.
Legal Connections
• Release - 388 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT. Advice line: 020 7729 9904/ 0845 4500 215; email: ask@release.org.uk; website: www.release.org.uk. Trustworthy drug related legal and health related information and help.
• Independent Drug Monitoring Unit - Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, Freepost NWW11111, Wigan, WN2 3ZZ. idmu@netgate.co.uk Web: www.idmu.co.uk Facts and figures plus expert witness service for drugs cases including medicinal and cannabis cultivation cases.
• Cannabis: The Facts, Human Rights & The Law; The Report of the F.C.D.A. Europe. A text book on Cannabis and the Law for ordinary people and professionals. It provides the defendant with appropriate strategies and defenses plus technical and legal information. Available in the UK from: Five Leaves Left, Freepost, PO Box 12, Tenby, Pembs, SA70 7ZZ. (01834 843074).
• 'Stop and Search', by Edwin Short. Useful book which explains all your rights. Used successfully in British courts.
• Liberty, 21 Tabard Street, London, SE1. 0207 403 3888. For a long time they refused to recognize cannabis cases as infringements of human rights but they have recently supported cannabis human rights defenses.
• A couple of friendly solicitors - Richard Parry (07979911082). Saunders & Co (020 7404 2828).
• Runciman Report. Expensive but very useful for and legal defense (see Reports page 35). Available from the Police Foundation, 1 Gyln Street, Vaxhall, SE11 5RA. (0207 582 3744).
• Zydot Drink. 'One hour after drinking 'euroblend' your urine may be pure for 4-5 hours'. 01525 370 702. In scotland: 01339 883 618. Also ‘ultra clean’ shampoo.
APPENDIX A
The Obligations of the UK Government under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961.
There has been an ‘urban myth’ propagated in the Home Office, and spread by ignorant, unstreetwize drug policy ‘experts’, right wing MPs, journalists and spinned-out Government Ministers that Britain’s supposed ‘obligations’ under the Single Convention prevent them from legalising cannabis even if they wanted to. This has been a regular excuse used for years and is simply not true, as they’d all discover if they bothered to look.
In fact the 'Single Convention' places no obligation on any signatory to make possession, production or distribution of any drug for personal use a criminal offense.
This has always been accepted as at least a permissible interpretation by the United Nations itself, as the official commentary on the Convention make clear. (‘Commentary on the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs’, 1961, United Nations, New York, 1973.)
The working papers of the 'Shafer Commission' contain a detailed discussion of this point, reaching the conclusion that: “although a country may decide that possession for personal use should be a punishable offense, there is nothing in the Convention which requires it to do so”. (Marihuana: Signal of Misunderstanding: The Shafer Report, Appendix, Vol. 1,Technical Papers, p 533.)
The most authoritative interpretation is that of Professor Adolph Lande, who as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Plenipotentiary Conference, acted as chief draftsman of the Convention: “The terms ‘possession’ and ‘purchase’ used in the penal provisions of the Single Convention mean only possession and purchase for the purpose of illicit traffic. Consequently unauthorised possession and acquisition of narcotic drugs for personal consumption need not be treated under the Single Convention either as punishable offenses or as serious offenses”. (A. Lande The International Drug Control System in Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective, Appendix, Technical Papers, Vol. III, p 129.)
The correct interpretation of the penal provisions of the Single Convention is that they deal only with the production and supply of drugs; acts incidental to personal use are not within its scope. It follows that not only possession but cultivation and distribution are required to be punishable only insofar as they are related to commercial trafficking not personal consumption.
1. It is open to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, acting on the recommendation of the World health Organization, to delete cannabis from the schedules to the Convention.
2. Cannabis could be removed from the scope of control by an amendment to the Convention proposed by any party and discussed by a special conference called for the purpose by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It was with this in mind that the Dutch delegate to the Council (19th April1978) proposed that the Convention should be amended “so as to enable each party to decide for itself the extent to which cannabis may be allowed for personal use”.
3. Any party to the Convention may legally withdraw from it on six months notice. The commonly used argument that for Britain to do this would lead to a breakdown in the international system of control of opiates, or even prevent the UK from obtaining opiates for legitimate use is simply not true. Ireland is not a signatory and they suffer no inconvenience. The reality is the system of control is applied to every country in the world whether it has signed the Convention or not. The International Narcotics Control Board is specifically authorised to do this by Articles 12, 13, 14 and 21 of the Convention.
4. The Vienna Convention of 1969 introduced the procedure of ‘selective denunciation’, which provides that a country may unilaterally withdraw from part of a treaty to which it is a party on various grounds, including “error of fact” in which the treaty itself and “fundamental change of circumstances”. (The relevance of these provisions is considered in: Lienward The International Law of Treaties and US Legalisation of Marijuana, Columbia J Transnet. Law 1971 10(2) 413.)
5. The prohibition on non-medical use of drugs does not extend to cannabis leaves, and the prohibition of cultivation of the cannabis plant does not extend to cultivation for any purpose which does not involve the separation of the flowering and fruiting tops, or the resin, from the rest of the plant. (A Lands The International Drug Control System in Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective, Appendix, Technical Papers, Vol III, p 129.).
- APPENDIX B -
MEASUREMENTS: 1 Pound = 16 oz, 453.6 gms, 0.4536 kilos. 1 kilo = 1000 gms, 35.27 oz. One Ounce = 28.35gms. 1 UK penny piece = 3.5gms (an eighth). 2 penny piece = 7gms (a quarter). 1 cigarette = approx 1gm.
Medical Cannabis Contacts >
Medical Cannabis Users Guide: Introduction - Medical Uses of Cannabis - Hemp & Nutrition - Cannabis Safety Research - Safe Use of Cannabis - Test Yourself For Cannabis Abuse - Methods of Using Medical Cannabis - Recipes - Medical Cannabis Books - Legal Notes - Legalise Yourself Kit - Medical Cannabis Contacts.
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