Would things have been different if cannabis had been available as a legal alternative
Despite the ever-changing face of cannabis on the global stage, many people still find themselves falling victim to the stigma which has existed for far too long. While this may be seen as an annoyance or inconvenience to the recreational consumer, medicinal users often find themselves suffering in silence or running the risk of facing criminal charges. We caught up with one medicinal user in the UK to hear their story.
Lisa is a 43-year-old mother of two grown up sons who has used cannabis recreationally and medically since she was a young teenager. Currently, she suffers from intense and aggravating daily pain but nothing her doctor has ever prescribed has helped to alleviate her symptoms. She felt like nothing was working and every pill they told her to pop just brought more disappointment with it. Eventually she found herself looking for solace in other drugs, illegally obtained on the streets, but even they did nothing but draw her deeper into her darkness. Like the saying goes: the drugs don’t work, they just make you worse.
Looking back, she feels that her situation wasn’t helped by her upbringing and surroundings. Lisa grew up in a generation of addicts and hung around with a group of hard-core ravers who were driven by the music, illegal rave scene and party drug culture. Although she experimented with hard drugs she found that she couldn’t cope with the come-down, but she found that she enjoyed being stoned and drifted into cannabis as a substitute. All around her she saw people being drawn into stronger and stronger opiates and despite the fact that she knew it wasn’t really her ‘cup of tea’ it became more and more difficult to say no to harder substances. At the age of 15 she fell pregnant and she looks back at this as a blessing because it was a reason for her to become grounded at a relatively young age. Becoming a mother saved her life.
When asked if she considers weed as a gateway drug due to the experiences of her youth, she explained that she found that most people used cannabis as a way of overcoming the lows that came with their highs. In her opinion there is no need for a gateway into harder drugs when it was so freely available on the streets where she spent her formative years. Moreover, her experiences have shown her that it is just as easy to get legal heroin substitutes on prescription from the government (even if you are a child). This insight only strengthens her opinion that the war on cannabis is a pointless, fruitless and endless distraction from the realities of the real issues we face.
Throughout her adult life she has faced many challenges, but none more so than having to watch her partner battle terminal cancer. On a daily basis she tried to comfort him while he dealt with the sickness caused by chemotherapy and the countless drugs they pumped into him. His first round of medication caused a number of side-effects and the solution from the doctors was to give him different medication to counteract this. Sadly, the second medication brought more issues with it. When it came to the second round of chemotherapy he refused treatment because the drugs caused him so much trouble. Watching someone you love suffer must have been truly heart-breaking, but she dedicated herself to doing everything she could to help.
In Lisa’s opinion, his decision to stop the official line of treatment prolonged his life but allowed the cancer to spread at a more aggressive rate It became unbearable for her to see him in this state, so she did all she could to find alternatives. It became apparent that the only medicine in which he found solace came in the form of cannabis, so she tried her best to get a ready supply. Because Lisa lives in the UK there was no legal way to get cannabis for her partner and she found herself drawn into an endless cycle of selling her property to make enough money to keep paying street prices for the bud he needed. Each time he went into hospital they gave him morphine and it turned him into a different person. Her partner was like a junkie who was ‘out of it’ when medicated and his whole demeanor changed for the worse. Family and friends began to distance themselves from them because of his difficult behavior. He hated how it made him feel numb and although he couldn’t control his behavior he knew something had to change. He had to try to overcome its addictive nature by smoking more and more, but his decision to come off the morphine came at the risk of killing him. This was a terrible experience but it also became a huge financial burden and crippled the couple. However, they had no other Lisa didn’t have the knowledge, experience or courage to look into setting up a cannabis grow of her own.
Eventually, he didn’t even have the strength to smoke and his lungs made it difficult for him to consume cannabis in the way he had always enjoyed. He would often roll a joint and then sit with it in his fingertips for the whole night without ever lighting it. They wanted to look into alternative consumption methods, but the cost of buying in small amounts meant it wasn’t feasible. Lisa even attempted to make her own oil following videos she found on YouTube without much success.
For 5 long years she tried to ease his suffering as he was gradually taken away from her. The toll the fight took on their relationship was huge and although she loved him dearly, the battles they fought ultimately pushed them both apart. When it came to the end she felt that he had pretty much given up because the battle had left him exhausted. In his last hours he was back in hospital and he begged her to take him home so that he could have one last joint; the doctors decided it was best to give him a large dose of morphine to ease his pain. The shot of morphine was too much for his weakened body to take and his lungs collapsed. He died that day on the hospital bed, gasping for air and begging Lisa to help him breath.
Had cannabis been available as a legal alternative, Lisa believes it would have eased his suffering throughout the whole process and helped them to maintain their relationship until the bitter end. Cannabis would have allowed this man to die with dignity and perhaps helped him to find peace instead of the tragic end that he had to face in front of her eyes. Because of the outdated laws and blinkered views of our politicians and those who control the medicinal industry, Lisa and her partner paid a heavy price both financially and emotionally. Lisa wants to see a real shift in policy for not only the UK but also the rest of the world to ensure that nobody else has to experience what she has gone through.
Unsurprisingly, Lisa was nervous to talk to us because she fears that there may be repercussions for her. In the eyes of the law she would be a criminal due to her actions in supplying another person with an illegal drug. Furthermore, she has been a long-time user herself and recognizes that she risks her liberty on a daily basis to treat her own ailments. She finds it incredibly frustrating that she could easily go the doctor and get a prescription for harmful opiates, yet any actions pertaining to the consumption of cannabis could see her labelled and tried as a criminal. Lisa does not want to be a burden to the financially-crippled NHS, so why should she feel like she is in the wrong?
Fortunately, she has recently been introduced to CBD oil and has found that it provides immense relief from her chronic pain. She has been amazed by its effectiveness and is happy that it is deemed as a legal health supplement in the UK. Looking back, she wonders how much of an impact it would have made to her partner and this has motivated her to speak out about her experiences in the hope of helping other. She spoke to a number of friends about CBD and found that many of them had misconceptions about getting stoned or arrested by consuming it. Recently, she watched a documentary on British television in which a number of celebrities embarked on a road trip across the US and explored the flourishing legal cannabis markets in different states. On the show they spoke about CBD in a positive light and this has helped to change some people’s opinion, but Lisa thinks this should be the catalyst for more action.
Over the next year she plans to invest her time into finding out more about the wonders of legal treatment and she plans to promote CBD through different outputs. In spite of her worries and fears, Lisa is ready take a stand and allow her voice to be heard.
By PSY 23 Originally published in Weed World Magazine Issue 134
Image – M Maggs