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A CRIMINAL FOR TURNING TO CANNABIS WHEN MEDICINE FAILED TO HELP EPILEPSY

IT'S a debate which has rumbled on for years.  Now the controversy about legalising cannabis has reared its head again through comments from various MPs circulating in the national media.  So what do people in Peterborough think?

EPILEPTIC Marcus Davies spends thousands of pounds on drugs to ease his fits each year.

But he doesn't buy them over the counter and he currently has four convictions for cultivating, supplying and possessing the drug.  Each time he's appeared before magistrates.  And each time he's been fined.

Marcus ( 34 ), of Parnwell, Peterborough, is a qualified electronics designer.  Yet, in the eyes of the law, he s a criminal.

For the last 16 years, Marcus has been unable to work fulltime because of his epileptic fits.  He says all legal medicines failed to work effectively for him, and he spent five years wasting away, suffering from both illness and treatment.

So, in 1988, he tried cannabis.  And he claims it changed his life.  He had previously been having epileptic seizures every day.  These seizures rendered me useless, he said.  "I use to pray that seizures occurred in the late evening, which gave me the night to recover, and during the following day I could behave as a normal person.  I have scarring of the tongue and many scars of the limbs damaged during seizures.  I smoke cannabis for medicinal purposes.  When I don't smoke it, I have convulsions."

Marcus has smoked cannabis medicinally for 13 years, and has welcomed the latest debate on the issue.  "This is most definitely a step forward," he said.

Mr Davies estimates he spends about UKP 5,500 a year on the drug which he buys from several dealers in the city.  He has little time for dealers, but knows it's the only place he can get the drug.  "The people I buy it from know my views on them very well, but they also like my money.  Throughout the country that s millions of pounds going to the wrong people," he said.  "Cannabis should be brought out into the open.  People like myself do not want to be gangsters dealing with the underworld.  When I want to smoke a joint, I'll smoke one as long as I'm not offending anybody else.  But I feel like a criminal, and I don t want to."

Marcus says that within an hour of smoking cannabis for the first time, he felt better than he had for the previous five years.  He says he has had only about eight seizures in 13 years of smoking cannabis.

While living in Lancashire, his home was searched by police and for the following six days he stopped taking cannabis.  He says he had seizures every hour and was admitted to hospital.  "After a brief discussion with the doctor about my case history I was unofficially advised to keep taking the cannabis medicine and keep my head down and my mouth shut.  Until now, this is what I've done," he said.

Although epilepsy is the main reason for taking cannabis, he also believes it relieved pain when he had laser therapy on his eye treatment made necessary by his diabetes.  "Cannabis is very effective at encouraging me to eat at regular times," he added.  "This phenomena, known as the munchies, must be extremely useful in the treatment of patients with wasting diseases, and has proved to stimulate my appetite often."

Marcus is a representative of Legalise Cannabis Alliance in Peterborough, and has his own website telling his story.  He says the only reason that cannabis leads to other drugs is through the pushers.  "Being illegal is the only thing that causes it to lead on to other drugs.  You have to purchase it from somebody who would sooner sell you something else.  It's nothing to do with the drug," he said.

"If we legalise it in this country, we remove that element of society that is getting an awful lot of money for doing nothing.  Cannabis needs to be imported properly and the quantity maintained.  Tax it by all means the Government would make billions out of it."

The debate on cannabis has been welcomed by drugs workers in Peterborough.  Lisa Mellen, deputy manager of the Bridgegate Drug Advisory Agency, based in Broadway, said: "We work within the framework of the law at the moment.  Debate around drugs is very healthy, and we would encourage it.  But cannabis does have its risks.  It is not a completely safe drug.  Smoking cannabis can cause lung problems or psychiatric difficulties.  It is not harmless.  However, it is not probably as harmful as other drugs people may choose to experiment with."

"While Bridgegate does not see as many cannabis users as those on other drugs, its effects can still be significant.  When it does cause problems it's a big problem to that person," Lisa added.