I just e-mailed my MP:

Dear Simon Hughes,

It is ten years since the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee published its Ninth Report, which concluded that the Government should allow doctors to prescribe cannabis for medical use. As Liberal Democrat health spokesman at the time, you endorsed this recommendation and, as your constituent, I wrote to congratulate you for taking this stance. A decade later, I write to request that the Lib Dems take up this cause with renewed vigour.

Cannabis is still not legally available in this country. However, a cannabinoid medicine, Sativex, has been developed by a British company, GW Pharmaceuticals. This valuable medicine has been denied a license by the MHRA in Britain, but has been approved for prescription in Canada and, as such, may be prescribed on a named patient basis. A number of patients in the UK are using Sativex to medicate a variety of illnesses, but only if their doctor is sympathetic and they persist in lobbying the NHS. It would be interesting to discover how many people are using Sativex and what for? Perhaps you could confer with Norman Lamb and he could ask this question of the Health Minister in the House of Commons?

Hopefully you get a response on this matter but i wouldn't hold my breath.

One thing i'd like to know is how much does sativex cost? I bet its a fucking fortune

Well, it's a week later and apart from the automatic e-mail acknowledgment, I've heard nothing.

If you check out some of the royalty estimates it goes into hundreds of millions for just one nation. I believe Japan bought rights and estimate annual royalties of 180million a year. I'd check that before you take it as gospel though. I just remember reading it in a single place so it could be well out or totally not true.

Ninorc. Send that letter every week is my advice. Even if it takes years to get a proper response. Persistance pays mate.

...Ages later, my MP responds:

20.01.09 SIMON HUGHES MP

Member of Parliament for North Southwark & Bermondsey
Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

Medicinal use of cannabis

Thank you for your e-mail on the subject of the medicinal use of cannabis. I apologise for the delay in replying, but my office continues to receive a large number of letters and emails. However, I am pleased that you have contacted me about this issue as I share your interest in the potential medicinal benefits of cannabis. You are right that I actively supported opening the door to the medicinal use of cannabis and signed an Early Day Motion to that effect in 1999.

I therefore share your concerns that there does not appear to have been any significant progress on this issue. I understand that GW Pharmaceuticals withdrew their application for a UK licence in July 2007, after a preliminary report indicated that there was no proof of the medicinal benefits of Sativex.

As you said in your letter, the absence of a licence has not prevented doctors from prescribing Sativex on a case by case basis. I agree that the argument for the medicinal benefits of Sativex would be significantly helped by an account of the number and type of medical cases in which qualified doctors have judged Sativex to be beneficial. I will therefore table a written parliamentary question to ask for this information.

I thank you again for getting in touch about this irnportant issue. I hope that this letter has, at least in part, addressed your concerns. I will be in touch again soon but if you have any further questions or if , can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Simon Hughes MP of North Southwark and Bermondse
WWW.simonhughesmp.org.uk
Simon Hughes - Now the Local MP for 25 Years Serving All the People - All the Year Round

looks like it could of got the ball rolling

Nice one for following that up ninorc

It will be interesting to see if he does table the question and the response it draws.

Nice one matey!

G

Prompted by today's news from GW, I've replied to Mr Hughes' letter:

Dear Simon Hughes,

Thanks for your reply to my e-mail about medicinal cannabis in a letter dated 20.01.09. I am pleased that you share my view and intend to table a written parliamentary question to ask for an account of the number and type of medical cases in which qualified doctors have judged Sativex to be beneficial.

However, I am perplexed by your assertion that 'GW Pharmaceuticals withdrew their application for a UK licence in July 2007, after a preliminary report indicated that there was no proof of the medicinal benefits of Sativex'. This is certainly not the case. Today, GWP has announced positive results from a study of Sativex in patients with spasticity due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS). You can view the press release here:
http://www.gwpharm.com/news_press_releases...ess/2009-02-24/

In fact it is nearly four years since GW received regulatory approval for Sativex in Canada for symptomatic relief of neuropathic pain in Multiple Sclerosis and two and a half years since Health Canada approved Sativex as adjunctive analgesic treatment in patients with advanced cancer. As such, it is surely unconscionable that the UK authority (MHRA) has been so dilatory in permitting UK patients to have ready access to this valuable medicine.

As you are no doubt aware, cannabis has a wide range of therapeutic applications and yet its prescription has been prohibited and its medicinal use suppressed in our country over the past forty years. We must stop criminalising sick people for the victimless 'crime' of medicating their own illness. As such, I look forward to hearing more about your plans to represent the cause of medicinal cannabis in Parliament.

Yours faithfully,

Top work, ninorc. Keep on rattling his cage, I think he needs it to keep him going. Hopefully someone might listen

excellant n inorc..
during the mid to late 90's cannabis had lots of possative publicity, there was a couple of court cases where a not guilty was given for medical cannabis. it was a time that the observer had a pro cannabis editer, and channel4 ran a nightly prog for 1 week callet POT WEEK, there was a lib/dem female mp who was campaining for legal cannabis. i will be voting liberal from now on, and if i can get my head together i will get a letter together and sent it to my local mp.

Well done Ninorc, I know first hand how frustrating it can get when it takes weeks or even months for MPs to respond to letters. Keep up the hard work though. After all, every query your MP makes is an MP working towards making cannabis available. If enough MPs were making similar queries, perhaps their collective voices would be heard. Good luck!

Nice one ninorc

Well done mate. I like the response.

Martin

good work Ninorc.



~lobalot~

nice one, and supremely well worded too.

good one mate. your mp could have improved on his spelling and grammer in that first letter though. naughty mp.

Good work, ninorc!


Is it time yet for another follow-up/status request/chivvy-along email?






Woof

I ran into Simon Hughes MP over the weekend. Actually, he came up to the stall from which I was dispensing deep-fried snacks at a neighbourhood event. Unfortunately, for him, Slimeyman had already placed his pakora order before introducing himself and so could not run away too quickly when I came back with, "I know who you are, matey..." He claimed to remember who I am, too, and I bent his ear for a few minutes before he managed to escape. His parting phrase was, "Keep up the pressure!" Cheeky wanker.

Cheeky bastard eh

Most of them are spineless scum though

Good on ya Ninorc, superb bit of work. Pin him to that parliamentary question he promised to ask...

OMG -- Write a letter for everyone to send their MPs and how we can contact them!

Nice work Ninorc! It's people like you who made medical cannabis a reality here in the states.