During June, the case for the legal use of cannabis derivatives was brought to the front of the news agenda by the heart-rending situation faced by Billy Caldwell.
Billy’s mother had flown to Canada to obtain a medicine that stopped his constant seizures. The medicine was confiscated at the airport upon her return to the UK. It was reported that customer officers were in tears as they removed it from her as she explained it was the only thing that gave her son some relief from his untreatable condition.
However, because of this, politicians, including the former Foreign Secretary William Hague, and others began to push for the legalising of cannabis for recreational use.
Patient help
The individual components derived from cannabis and used in a regulated form have been able to help some patients. Just as the use of morphine has been separated from the illegal use of heroin, there is a strong argument to support the medical use of cannabis derivatives. Indeed, Billy had been prescribed it in the UK and been using it for a year prior to the Home Office stopping his doctor doing this 12 months ago.
In Colorado, where there are more cannabis shops than McDonalds, the folly of legalising it for recreational use is plain. Psychiatrists knowledgeable within the field warned it was ‘now incontrovertible that heavy cannabis use increases the risk of psychosis’. Alongside an increased risk of road accidents, the Colorado Springs District Attorney described the drug as a ‘gateway’ to murder: of the 22 murders in the city in 2016, eight were related to cannabis.
