Pubdate: Thu, 29 Sep 2005
Source: Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News (UK)
Copyright: 2005 Trinity Mirror Plc
Contact:  
http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/runcornandwidnesweeklynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3250
Author: Simon Drury
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

POLICE SEIZE SICK WIFE'S CANNABIS

A HUSBAND who grows cannabis to treat his sick wife is waiting to hear
whether he will be prosecuted for drug dealing following a police raid
on his home.

Sixty-year-old Alan Blythe opened his door on Friday morning to find
six uniformed police officers on the step with a warrant to search his
home.

The police were acting on a tipoff that Mr Blythe was growing cannabis
at his bungalow in Badger Close, Palacefields, but the warrant was
unnecessary as the taxi driver immediately handed over his stash of
cannabis plants.

The raid was the fourth time in a decade that Mr Blythe has been
arrested for growing the drug which he says is the only thing to
provide relief from terrible symptoms from the multiple sclerosis his
wife, Judith, 57, has suffered for more than 20 years.

He said: 'The police were very decent about everything. I saw them on
the step and immediately handed over the plants and they arrested me
and took me down the station.

'Judith suffers from a terrible dizziness and disorientation but
thanks to cannabis, she hasn't had an attack in 13 years. It is the
only thing that provides her with any relief and she takes it every
day.

'I think it is ridiculous that I can be arrested for doing something
out of love to help my wife. I feel we are being harassed and I wish
they would just leave us alone to get on with our lives.

'Whatever happens, I will carry on growing cannabis because it helps
Judith and that is far more important than the law.'

In 1998 Mr Blythe was cleared of cultivating cannabis with intent to
supply by a jury at Warrington Crown Court.

Afterwards he said he would be prepared to go to prison rather than
watch his wife suffer.

He used a rare defence of 'duress of circumstances' because he feared
that without cannabis the symptoms of her disease would drive his
wife to suicide.

Now Mr Blythe has been ordered to attend Runcorn Police Station on
October 31 to discover whether he will be prosecuted for the latest
offence.

He said: 'It is a crazy situation. Whatever happens I will continue to
grow cannabis and the only way the police will stop me is if I am locked up.'
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