The Outlaw Patients

by Katharine Quarmby

On a cold spring evening I catch a fast train from London to Maidstone in Kent, to meet Clark French, a young man with multiple sclerosis. I’m joining him and his companions from the United Patients Alliance (UPA) on a road tour of the UK. The group French founded last year has one, on the face of it, simple mission: the legalization of medical cannabis in the UK.

I arrive a little early at the old Victorian building where the UPA is holding its meeting. French arrives five minutes later, smiling and leaning on a stick, and we go inside. While Alex, another activist, fires up the tea urn, French explains that he has also been firing up, discreetly, nearby. He tells me that the pain, tremors and spasms he experiences from his multiple sclerosis can be controlled with cannabis. Without it, he says, his ability to get out of bed in the mornings, let alone do things like speak at meetings, would be greatly reduced.

Although many UPA members live with painful conditions such as arthritis, multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease, they are campaigning hard on this single issue, eschewing the wider issue of wholesale legalization. In his speech to the meeting, French stresses that language could help shift public perception — that “patients” should talk about “medicating” and refer to cannabis as a “medicine” rather than as a recreational “drug”. “Multiple sclerosis took so much from me,” says French. “But if prohibition wasn’t there, I could have my life back… we all deserve it. That’s my motivation.”

But it’s not that easy. Whenever French “medicates”, he has to keep an eye out for police officers. He, and other medical cannabis users, have made themselves outlaws, on one charge only.

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