THE LAW IS AN ASS. I have been following the news (as of 16th June 2018) about the confiscation of 'Cannabis Oil' from the mother of a 12-year-old from Northern Ireland, who had secured 6-month's supply in Canada. How utterly RIDICULOUS. ONE ASPECT WHICH HAS NOT BEEN COVERED IS THE COST OF TREATING PATIENTS WITH CANNABIS. Suffering from serious long-term (CHRONIC) pain in my feet from peripheral neuropathy, I have been investigating other options. I came across NICE Guidelines from 2013 which provides estimates of annual costs of treating patients with each drug. A Cannabis-based spray is available but cost c. £5,500 - WAY TOO MUCH TO ADMINISTER TO LARGE NUMBERS. I will never be offered this on the NHS - though the cost could come down considerably if the quantities available were increased. LEGALITY issues have restricted research into the benefits (or not) of 'Cannabis' as a pain-reducer. I am the LAST PERSON to wish to take Cannabis for RECREATIONAL purposes (see below). So I am experimenting with legal supplies of Cannabis oil - it makes no sense that I, as a scientist, cannot seek advice on this treatment from my GP or anybody, including those that do not have the training or intelligence to be able to assess meaningfully what they are doing.
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I have never smoked a single tobacco cigarette in my life. My father died of lung cancer from his tobacco smoking habit; he began smoking (very much the fashionable thing to do) in his teens (I think). He died, aged 58 - he smoked roll-ups; I still have some of the tins he bought his tobacco in, as they were useful for storing screws and nails and the like in our shed and garage. As teenagers, my sister and I pestered him to stop. We asked him why he smoked? His answer was that he, "Liked it". This was his way of avoiding admitting he was addicted. I remember a 'O' level Biology lesson about the harmful effects of Nicotine and tar etc. He did eventually stop, after he had been told he had six-months to live. His brother smoked a pipe from a young age (this was generally believed to be less harmful). I admit to finding pipe and cigar smoke less unpleasant. During my time at University (in the late 1970s) I was never offered Cannabis but I was never invited to the sort of parties where, I imagine, it was consumed. I never went to a pop festival. So I am the last person who would seek to get some sort of 'high' from Cannabis or any other 'drug'. But is that true. In my late teens I drank a fair amount of alcohol and on my 17th birthday, got paralytic - thanks to two 'class-mates' who turned up (the first and only time) at the Marquis of Lorne Pub in Stevenage Old Town, where I had been playing darts once a week for some months - in those days, if you passed for 16 you would be served or failing that sold cans or bottles at the 'Off-Licence' door which most pubs had. I went to play darts, not to drink, though would consume several pints of 'Lager & Lime' (the squirt of lime too the sharpness of the Lager away). I never enjoyed 'bitter' beer. I seem to recollect tasting wine and champagne (my verdict, "dry and unpleasant", though that might have been down to the poor quality) at the occasional family wedding I went to in my teens, though could not say the age at which I first had a sip of alcohol. When playing for the school First XI football team (as goal-keeper) the main sports teacher held a couple of evening events in the 6th Form building for First and Second XI teams which involved a buffet-style meal with wine plus some football films. The wine was 'cheap & nasty' to say the least! In those days, little wine was drunk in the UK - the first successful brand being Blue Nun Liebfraumilch (a white, fruity type from Germany) presumably to the fruitiness suited unsophisticated palates. I was introduced to pale Ale, popular in working class pubs at the time when on overnight course at an Agricultural College aged 15. A couple of the older-looking (who could have passed for 18) bought some cans at the nearby pub off-license; I was not impressed, finding the taste unpleasant - I wondered what all the fuss was about and why bother drinking something one did not enjoy.