Pauly Pops
Jul 10, 2017 · 5 min read

Dear Bambos Charalambous,

Firstly; congratulations on your new post. I hope yourself and the increased Labour vote, see us into a prosperous new future.

I’m writing to you with my concern about Cannabis. Increasingly around the globe, Cannabis is being allowed for medicinal use; and even recreational. I’m writing in regards to the medical side of things.

The current government policy is that it “cannabis as having no medical benefit.”.

  • First starters, this is massively hypocritical and not the case; Sativex is a licensed based cannabis. There are other medicines in the works too. How can a drug have ‘no medicinal benefit’ yet be licensed (at £130/week/patient, compared to about £10) as a drug? Current status of Cannabis goes against advice from the BMJ [1 — More Info A and More Info B)] . I also urge you to read this editorial by the United Patients Alliance (UPA) which will put forward the medical argument better than I can [2 — More Info].
  • The Journal of Scientific Reports; accumulation of other studies; conclude it to be safer — by a long way — than other drugs [3 — more info]. This information comes from the Washington Post.
  • The government line that “Legalising will cause in increase in crime” surely you can see this makes no sense. By making something legal, these young men’s activities will no longer me illegal. Or those who want to take cannabis from specific licensed places will no longer go to street dealers. It’ll free up thousands of hours of police time, saving a fortune. These young men are actually very entrapanorial; imagine what they could do without having criminal convictions hanging over their heads. By legalising it, users of cannabis will no longer be criminals too.
  • In Colorado, one of the first States in America to legalise cannabis, they have reported that it’s added $1billion into their economy. This has founded schools, drug rehabilitation programs, and so forth. And other states and countries that have followed suite, have found similar results. Does the UK really want to fight against the world on this? [4 — more info]. It also dramaticlly increases house prices and buisness rates, as people flock to those areas [5-more info].
  • I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but there are over 400 chemicals/properties/etc inside the Cannabis plant, of which, there are two main varieties and 100s (perhaps 1000s) of Strains; that all make up ‘Cannabis’. It’s really not just a case of “There is Skunk” and that’s it. Each strain has a different combination of the 400 chemicals (the main ones being CBD, the nati-psychotic and anti-inflammatory; and THC, the “bit that gets you high”). Street drugs are high THC, but as with all street items, you don’t know what you’re getting. With a licensed depository (think a Pharmacy), and trained staff, they can say “Hey, you got XYZ, but you also have ABC — I think you should have this/that/other variety”…..Just take a look around this well established American Cannabis based site, see the different veriaties and conditions they can help with. [6- more info]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

But more than this, I have server Crohn’s Disease. It’s given me chronic depression and anxiety; I also have other ailments, but those are the main ones. Last year it accumulated in an operation to move my entire large bowel; and leave me with a Stoma — with this operation, I went on my own accord [7 — More Info], but within a year, I would have had to have had the operation anyway — except that time it would be in an emergency situation.

I’m in pain pretty much all the time, real serious pain — to the point where I’m just on the verge of not being kept in hospital. My tablets make me fatigued (actually fatigued). They put me in a position where sometimes I don’t know what i’m doing. I sometimes fall asleep standing up — I literally wake up as I’m falling over and just about catch myself from crashing over. Happens a few times a week, and it’s a miracle that I haven’t had an accident yet. I sometimes speak with whomever I’m with & I talk absolute rubbish, because I can’t tell if i’m dreaming or awake. At social situations I have to leave early and go lay down. I am on the verge of risking overdosing on opiate based pain medication, on a daily basis. I literally am typing this with one eye open and one eye closed, desperate to go and lay down on the couch — but I must finish this email to you. My opiate use is enough to be used on a horse (I won’t link to exact medication; but it’s as high as it goes, whilst not being kept in hospital).

I’ve tried Cannabis a few times, and you know what? It really did help, I didn’t need the next dose of painkillers until much later. It didn’t cure me, but it helped. By my issue is that because i’ve had to purchase via illicit means, my supply is limited — and this is a medicine. I need to know I can get it, and the right stuff, at any point in time. This is why why I currently only take it occasionally, as I can’t exactly walk into boots and buy some.

If you were in the above situation, and was told time and time again — by the research — that there was a drug that, if given the right strains and prescribed by a trained medical professional… it would greatly reduce your symptoms — give you a quality of life — let you be productive again like you once were — to be pain free; what would you prefer? …

Would you rather be the the productive criminal, or the disabled citizen?

Yours sincerely,

  • Paul

[1a] http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2130
[1b] http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3382
[2] http://www.upalliance.org/medical-evidence/
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/23/marijuana-may-be-even-safer-than-previously-thought-researchers-say
[4] http://fortune.com/2016/12/13/colorado-billion-legal-marijuana-sales/
[5] http://www.denverpost.com/2017/05/04/metro-denvers-average-home-sale-price-april-2017/
[6] https://www.leafly.com/
[7] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=paul+silver+crohns&oq=paul+silver+crohns&aqs=chrome..69i57.4759j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Pauly Pops

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