The alliance estimates that about 10,000 people in the UK are using cannabis to relieve pain, muscle spasms and to regulate bladder control. All of them are risking criminal prosecution, and two people have even been jailed for growing and smoking their own supply. At the moment evidence to support the medicinal benefits of cannabis and their derivatives, cannabinoids are purely anecdotal. The lack of any known theraputic benefit was a large part of the decision to ban doctors from prescribing them in 1973. But although campaigners welcome the latest research developments they want action.
Many doctors prescribe drugs on an 'unlicensed' basis.
Dr William Notcutt is a consultant anaesthatist specialising in pain management at the James Pagett Hospital in Great Yarmouth. I'm happy to do that for patients who have severe intractable pain - there is no other choice for them. But I'm not prepared to use it as the first treatment for any patient that walks into my clinic with pain. Dr Notcutt says that taking a decision based on his knowledge of pharmacology and his medical experience over a number of years is exactly what surgeons and GPs do all the time. It may be the only glimmer of hope for cancer patients and MS sufferers while the debate about legalising cannabis continues - even back among the ladies of the Townswomen's Guild at the Albert Hall.