LOL. 4 quid a day is around $12 New Zealand dollars. So let me get this right: if you want the pain relieving qualities of pot, you can import a drug, which is derived from cannabis, but with only 2 of the 423 different psychoactive drugs found in cannabis. You can do this for $12 a day (or $4380 a year)....the drug would cost patients approximately £4 a day.
OR - you can buy 6 ounces of premium pot for $1800 per year which will last the entire year, quell the pain better than some stupid extract, and give you a nice little high at the same time.
If you didn't like the idea of smoking the weed, you could cook it in clarfied butter, strain it and bake with it.
This is so freaking funny. I mean, I can understand some people might have qualms about taking cannabis in its natural form, for pain relief. Some may be strongly against the health risks of smoking ANYTHING, and some may not have any experience with pot at all - and hence be rather apprehensive - but answer me this:
What the bloody hell difference is extracting the two most active chemicals in pot, and putting it in a spray, as compared to simply smoking pot (or taking it in another form)? You still get the two main chemicals, and those chemicals are strongly psychoactive, and hence provide the brain with a nice little high.
You simply can't tell me this drug doesn't give people a nice, albeit mild high. The exact same effect can be had by taking one, or two hits on a bong. The only difference is that 2 hits probably cost on the order of 50 cents to 1 dollar.
From my own personal experience, I know the pain relieving qualities of smoking pot. I have a destroyed left ankle, and a regular (but low!) dose of pot smoke makes a simply HUGE difference to the amount of pain I experience every step I take.
I think it's morally reprehensible to suck money froma group of people - by letting them take an expensive drug - lining the pockets of pharmaceutical companies in the process - which is illegal to take in its natural form.
Any fool can see that the answer is simply to let these people smoke, or ingest pot for the control of their pain.
Hell, if you've ever taken anti-inflammatories like Voltaren (which eats the lining of your stomach, and can cause very unpleasant side effects) or Vioxx (Which increases the risk of myocardial infarction -heart attack- in susceptible people) or Celebrex (similar to Vioxx, and probably has the same increase in heart attack risk. I take this one when I'm in agony - and that's probably twice a month) then you'll know that while pot may not be the ideal form of treatment in terms of health risk, the side effects are minimal in comparison to the major drugs which are promoted and sold at a price which far exceeds a natural substance which already provides pain relief to many tens of thousands of people in pain.
It's funny isn't it? Going to all that trouble and expense of extracting the active ingredients in pot, just to put it in a bottle and sell it at 8-10 times the going rate for high quality pot.
It's also funny that a government is happy to allow people to use this product for pain relief, but prosecute them for using the exact same drug, but one which does not generate any tax revenue.
★■◆●ing hypocritical wankers!