Pubdate: Sat, 14 Apr 2012
Source: Nelson Mail, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2012 Fairfax New Zealand Limited
Contact:  http://www.nelsonmail.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1069
Author: Naomi Arnold

WEEDING OUT A WORLD OF PAIN

With 62 cannabis plants and seedlings found growing on her Golden Bay 
property, activist Victoria Davis could have felt the full weight of 
the law when she appeared in court. Instead, her discharge without 
conviction has given new hope to the medical cannabis lobby, writes 
Naomi Arnold

Between three and five minutes after his first puff, John "Buzz" 
Davis feels the sensations beginning to recede. Not entirely; the 
maddening itches and pains in his amputated lower legs and feet are 
still there, but they're duller, easier to cope with. Most 
importantly, he can sleep.

"It can be a tickle, it can be cramp, pain, itching  any normal 
sensation," he says. "The trouble is that it's so precise that you 
cannot believe you can feel a little toe that's not there, that feels 
like somebody's chewing on it."

His legs were amputated in 2008, after too-small compression bandages 
were used in hospital during his quadruple heart bypass, cutting off 
the blood supply and turning his toes gangrenous.

He's tried prescription medication for his phantom pains, but can't 
cope with the side effects. He says the only thing that relieves it 
is using cannabis.

Seeing the 64-year-old navigate around his wheelchair-modified home 
in Onekaka, it is hard to come up with a humane reason why he 
shouldn't. His wife, wellknown Golden Bay activist Victoria Davis, 
couldn't say no either; and it seems that neither could Nelson judge 
Tony Zohrab.

Mrs Davis tried growing cannabis plants to supply her husband with 
his pain relief, and last month Judge Zohrab discharged her without 
conviction during an appearance in Nelson District Court after she 
admitted charges of cultivation and possession. Nelson police say 
they won't be appealing it.

Although Judge Zohrab said he wasn't setting a precedent, the case 
has drawn plenty of media attention and led to lobby groups renewing 
calls to legalise medicinal cannabis. Is its time nearing?

A full-time carer for her mother, father, and now her husband, Mrs 
Davis, 62, says Buzz can't function without it.

"He was depressed and miserable when he lost his legs," she says. 
"Wouldn't eat, didn't want to do anything when he was in the 
hospital. As soon as he came home and started self-medicating, his 
attitude got better, he started eating more, he's more positive, and 
he doesn't have to suffer any of those side effects."

Most surprising to her has been the response to her case. An 
environmentalist, former radiologist and former Tasman mayoral 
candidate, she is used to getting "hammered" by those against her 
views. But not this time.

"Every time I go to town I have at least one serious approach," she 
says. "Yesterday was this old guy who said, 'Victoria, my back's 
really aching me, these pain pills make me feel nauseated. Do you 
know where I can get some marijuana?' I don't know what to say to people.

"There's a big wave of support that really wants to see some 
intellectual dialogue take place and not this fear-mongering and 
misrepresented information. This is the first time I've ever stood up 
for an issue and nobody  to my face, anyway  has said it's bad or horrible.

"I've had widespread support; heaps of people from what I've 
considered to be conservative, Right-wing, and elderly [backgrounds]."

In fact, she's mostly been approached by elderly people. "They're 
thinking, 'Maybe this could help me'."

She says that in court, a staff member whispered to her to be more 
careful next time. Someone in Nelson sent her an anonymous letter 
containing $20 with a note advising her it was a contribution to medication.

After she appeared on Kim Hill's Saturday morning radio programme 
last week, the station received 100 messages, two to one in favour of 
the Davises, and many of those against acknowledging there could be 
benefits from allowing medicinal marijuana use in supervised circumstances.

Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in New Zealand, and we 
have the ninth-highest consumption level in the world. In 2005-06, we 
spent $116.2 million and 333,684 policing hours targeting it. Yet 
recreational and medicinal cannabis use are very different, lobbyists 
say, and shouldn't be confused.

Cannabis has been the subject of three previous health select 
committee inquiries; in 1995, 1998 and 2003. In 2006, Green Party MP 
Metiria Turei lodged a member's bill proposing an amendment to the 
Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 to decriminalise use of cannabis for 
medicinal purposes, but was defeated 84-34.

In 2010, the Law Commission reviewed the 36-year-old Misuse of Drugs 
Act, proposing decriminalisation for people suffering chronic and 
debilitating illnesses and eventually recommending that the 
Government consider supporting clinical trials into the efficacy of 
raw cannabis in comparison with synthetic cannabis for pain relief.

The New Zealand Medical Association also supports having 
evidence-based, peer-reviewed studies of medicinal cannabis. However, 
in September 2011, associate health minister Peter Dunne said in 
response to the Law Commission report that it wasn't the Government's 
role to initiate clinical trials.

"If the active ingredient of cannabis is seen as essential or 
beneficial for pain relief, there are already pharmaceutical forms of 
it available that provide measured doses and quality control," he 
said. The Government wouldn't look at changing the legal status of cannabis.

Yet that doesn't mean much for people who are sick now, and continue 
to use cannabis for pain relief whether it's legal or not  facing 
problems with varying strengths, lung damage and other unknown health 
effects through lack of medical supervision, irregularity of supply, 
and a criminal record.

The cannabis-derived medication Sativex, in the form of an inhaler, 
is available only for people with multiple sclerosis, to control 
spasticity where all other medical avenues have been exhausted. 
However, it's not funded by Pharmac and costs about $1000 a month.

Drug Foundation of New Zealand executive director Ross Bell believes 
Judge Zohrab made the right decision when he discharged Mrs Davis 
without conviction.

"It's possibly a message to police about what cases they're bringing 
to the judge," he says.

"I think as a society we should look more compassionately at those cases."

He's met plenty of people in the Davis' situation, where cannabis 
brings "genuine health benefits".

Although he says the Drug Foundation "certainly doesn't think it's 
the miracle drug that some people say it is", their research shows 
cannabis is effective for increasing appetite in cases where 
medication has caused people to lose it, treating people with 
multiple sclerosis, seizures and fits, Tourette's syndrome, chronic 
pain, neurological disorders, nausea and vomiting, and Hiv-related wasting.

"The science around its medicinal properties isn't in dispute  the 
biggest dispute now is how do you deliver that as medicineUKP"

Fuel for medical cannabis

The vast majority of users, he says, are elderly people seeking 
relief from chronic pain, including arthritis, and for relieving side 
effects of chemotherapy. Yet those who might be in support of law 
reform, who've perhaps been sick and tried it themselves, "are never 
going to out themselves", he says. "They don't want to be associated 
with stoners."

In 1996 California became the first state to legalise cannabis for 
medical purposes. The drug is now permitted in some form under local 
laws in 16 states and Washington DC. Although Mr Bell says rampant 
abuse of medicinal marijuana laws in California mean it's a model to 
avoid, other countries have "more compassionate regimes"; doctors can 
prescribe marijuana in Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, 
Finland, Italy, Spain, Israel and Portugal.

"We're behind the times in New Zealand," he says. "I think most New 
Zealanders would support a compassionate regime. The sad thing is 
that when the Law Commission made their recommendation of bringing in 
a medical cannabis regime, the Government rejected that immediately. 
Politicians still fear that medical cannabis is going to be used as a 
backdoor way into legalising cannabis.

"There are bigger questions around how we deal with drugs in this 
country. Police do their cannabis ops and burn it off and destroy it 
and say 'We've broken the back of the cannabis market'.

"If we look at what happens, cannabis use hasn't been affected by 
that kind of action. People are still able to get their hands on 
cannabis and other drugs. We've got the mix wrong ... I don't think 
it's a good use of police time and taxpayer resources."

The Davises do not want to see cannabis legalised outright; Mrs Davis 
says she is vehemently opposed to young people in particular abusing 
any substance, particularly alcohol.

She's armed with well-worn arguments about the immense damage 
cigarettes and alcohol do to the people of this country, compared to cannabis.

"I want intelligent discussion to take place in this country," she 
says. "If the Martians came down and saw us they'd say: 'Why is 
alcohol legal, and not only legal but we can advertise it on TV and 
it costs this country billions of dollars in all kinds of costs?"'

She goes further  she wants to see a marijuana industry here, 
bringing a whole new meaning to the idea of clean, green New Zealand.

"Most modern countries have medicinal marijuana. Somebody grows it 
and they approve it and sell it, so there's actually a wee little 
industry that we are not engaging in here in this country.

"We don't even grow hemp here, for heaven's sake, because of the 
fear. That's how bizarre it is."

Vic Eastman, Mr Davis' doctor and a former Golden Bay Medical Centre 
GP, says that although he thinks the law is wrong, he doesn't want to 
be prescribing marijuana.

He's had patients admit to using it to him: "Not a lot, but certainly 
frequently. Many, many people keep it to themselves but are not shy to tell me.

"On the other hand it's not knowledge I can use in a way that makes 
sense, and I certainly can never write anything down." He says most 
have psychological issues, and use it to calm themselves.

"These are not abnormal people  they're not people badly damaged."

Legalising medicinal cannabis would be "incredibly difficult". "First 
of all it will do nothing about the illegal market and the massive 
amount of enforcement effort and damage the enforcement is doing to 
society," he says.

"I think that's huge, and I think that's important. Mostly those who 
might benefit medically from marijuana aren't getting it because 
they're the honest citizens  they're not of the gang that can get it. 
Vicky's reasonably unique, and of course Golden Bay is green  grows 
everything."

Almost the worst part of the whole thing, Mrs Davis says, was 
realising she was a serious criminal offender. She thinks someone 
local dobbed her in.

In January, she was driving home from caring for her father in Nelson 
when she saw the spotter plane circle her property a dozen times in 
low, slow circles. A week later, police turned up, armed with a Taser 
and an aerial picture of her property, showing cannabis planted 
behind her feijoa tree. The policeman counted 62 plants, including 20 
seedlings  a large number, which she says she planted to guard 
against some dying. "I just freaked. I thought 'Oh no, here it 
goes'," she says. That night, her husband was in tears, wondering 
what he'd done to her. "She's taking the rap for something she was 
doing for me," he says now.

Levin amputee Billy Mckee, 57, runs Green Cross, a New Zealand 
medical cannabis support group which promotes the legalisation of 
medicinal cannabis use under GP supervision. He's on bail, facing a 
charge of cultivation and four of supply after an encounter with an 
undercover police officer who pretended to be sick.

The 57-year-old lost the lower half of his right leg after a drunk 
driver hit him 36 years ago, and a subsequent medical mishap in which 
his leg was set incorrectly. At home all day in a wheelchair, he has 
nothing to do but research the drug on the internet. He's been a 
medicinal cannabis user for the past 10 years, and before he got 
arrested he used it mostly as a poultice on the nervedamaged stump of 
his leg. "That works incredibly well."

He describes the pain as a toothache that doesn't go away. "If I take 
prescription medication for it, the side effects are horrendous," he says.

"If I could get by on prescription medication it wouldn't be a 
problem; I'd just do that. It would be way easier for me to do that 
than it would be for me to be involved with Green Cross and trying to 
get laws changed."

About 200 people nationwide seek pain relief from Green Cross. Most, 
he says, are elderly women "trying to get through the day". "It's 
pretty depressing being incapacitated," he says. "The younger guys 
can get their own, but older ladies, wheelchair-bound and not mobile; 
they don't want to go to tinny houses. They're scary places." He's 
heard reports of elderly women eating a teaspoon of raw cannabis to 
try to get some benefit.

"What a person uses for medicine is really between them and their 
doctor. The person judging what works best for them is the person that's sick."

One who's been there is Motueka man Chris Buck who in 1991 was 
diagnosed with a highly aggressive malignant brain tumour, and 
underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Antiemetics proved 
ineffective, he lost half his body weight, and doctors were 
considering a feeding tube when a friend of his, another doctor, 
recommended he try cannabis to control the nausea.

"As they thought I would have only a short time to live, no-one 
objected to the fact I was using an un-prescribed substance to thwart 
the evils of the supposed pharmaceutical cure," he says. His nausea 
abated and he could eat again, completing his course of radiation and 
chemotherapy. He says he never became addicted to the plant, but will 
always hold it as his "hero".

"It's made it possible for me to live over 20 years  about 19 years 
longer than anyone, including the medical practitioners, thought possible."

Meanwhile, Mrs Davis won't say what she and her husband will do now. 
Mr Davis believes it might just be a matter of waiting.

"I think somebody will see the light eventually."

His wife, however, describes the entire situation as "heart-breaking".

"I helped the policeman pull the plants out," she says. "I helped him 
pull out my husband's free medication."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom