Former UK cop advocates for MMJ

It's unfortunate that medicinal marijuana keeps gaining converts from the ranks of the prohibitionists this way, but if you can't believe a former cop, who can you believe? Kate Bradley, one of the leaders in the campaign to legalize the herb for such use in the UK, formerly worked as an undercover officer for the West Midlands police. Now suffering from the crippling agonies of multiple sclerosis,
the degenerative disease which has put her in a wheelchair, Bradley now hits the streets once a month to procure her medicine of choice, namely cannabis.

She [said]: 'I've tried everything, even morphine, but cannabis is the only thing that helps. For me it's not a recreational drug - it's a lifesaver. When I have an attack the pain is everywhere. It goes from the soles of my feet right up through my legs, my torso into my eyes and even into my mouth. I feel like I'm being stung by millions of bees all at the same time all over my body. Then I end up feeling like I'm on fire, it's as if there's a blowtorch against my skin. And at the same time, there are tight metal bands around my legs and arms, so tight they make me want to chop them off.'

It wasn't an easy choice for her.

'I first heard about cannabis when I was with a group of friends who also suffered from MS. One of the women there suggested I try cannabis. I shrank back right away. I thought to myself, "I am an ex-police officer. I used to arrest drug dealers, how can I possibly start using them?" I had to fight with my conscience but the fight didn't last very long. The pain was getting worse and worse, it was getting so I just couldn't live with it any more. I didn't want to be around if I was going to suffer like that.

She had to overcome her fear of the plant besides.

'The first time I took it I was terrified because I really didn't know what the effects were going to be. But when I did I just couldn't believe it. Within half an hour the pain had started to fade for the first time in years. I just couldn't grasp the fact that there was something so much more effective than all the conventional medicine I had tried, yet it was not available on prescription. It didn't make any sense.

Now she's an advocate and takes her government to task for dragging their feet on the issue.

'The government seems to be blase about our fate. I cannot believe the research is taking so long and anyway I do not need any research because I know exactly what works for me. All that I and hundreds of other MS sufferers want is some compassion.'

The prohibition profiteers like to tell you that medical marijuana supporters have a hidden agenda to legalize the plant altogether. Not true. What is true is that the drug policy reformers like myself who forthrightly admit our goal is to eventually legalize all use completely also support the chronically ill in their quest to find relief now.