‘I’ll keep growing cannabis to help me’ says sick woman made homeless after her disability benefits were stopped
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Lisa Andrews has vowed to continue growing cannabis to help alleviate her long term health problems after she was arrested on suspicion of dealing cannabis.
The 42-year-old from Sheffield, who is suffering with heart failure and arthritis, has hit out at the £3,655 cost of medical cannabis licenses.
Officers say they found 50 cannabis plants in her house, but Lisa says she needs that many to make the oil.
She says she cannot afford to buy it after she lost her business and the Government stopped her benefits for six months after they “lost the paperwork”. She is now homeless.
It comes after the Home Office announced it will review the £3,655 cost of medical cannabis licenses. Campaigners have criticised the price tag after a new panel allowed patients to access the drug, but the initiative received less than five responses.
Lisa, who is currently ‘sofa surfing’ with friends told i: “I’m a law abiding citizen – I have never even got a speeding ticket or a fine.
“Without cannabis I wouldn’t be able to get up out of bed all day from the agony. You need a lot of the plant to make a small amount of oil. I can’t afford to buy it and growing it is cheaper.
“It’s all good the Government saying it will make medical cannabis available but who can afford £3,655? It needs to be full legalised to stop this nonsense. I will keep on growing it and the police will get bored of busting me before I will stop.”
Under investigation
‘With all that’s been going on my depression has worsened, and cannabis keeps me sane’
Lisa Andrews, medicinal cannabis user
Lisa has a host of medical problems that leave her in severe pain, breathless, suffering palpitations, anxious and depressed. Last year she was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy – a disease of the heart muscle which affects its size, shape and structure – which has led to heart failure.
This year she also discovered the deformities she was born with in both hands is Holt-Oram syndrome, leading to additional heart problems – which can be life-threatening. She was recently told she has a leaking aortic valve. She also suffers with cervical spondylosis, commonly known as neck arthritis.
Lisa said she lost her hairdressing business last November after her landlord told her to move out of the premises and her health has deteriorated since.
Officers then arrested Lisa in April as part of a police blitz which turned up £40,000 of illegal drugs in the area and she remains under investigation.
Lisa said: “I’ve smoked cannabis for around 20 years and while I’ve always felt it helped my mental health, now it helps me enormously with my physical pain.
“I really noticed if I have a day without it that I’m in total agony. With all that’s been going on my depression has worsened, and cannabis keeps me sane.
“In 2016 the UK produced 95 tonnes of cannabis – they are the biggest exporter [of legal cannabis] in the world yet they are arresting people like me who can’t afford a licence to get the drug they need. It’s ludicrous.”
Lisa says she will continue to grow the drug and contacted South Yorkshire Police to ask for clarification of the law, but so far has got no response.
Call for medicinal cannabis licence fee to be scrapped
Billy Caldwell, pictured with his mother Charlotte, had 100 epileptic seizures a day but now has none after taking cannabis (Photo: PA)
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil is legal in the UK – but products are required to contain a maximum THC content of 0.2 per cent. There have been calls for stronger versions to be made legal.
A new panel was recently set up to advise the Government about the effects of medical marijuana amid the outcry over the case of severely epileptic boy Billy Caldwell who had his CBD oil confiscated by officials at Heathrow Airport.
As part of a two-part review, it announced at the end of June that prescriptions for medicinal cannabis could be prescribed within a fortnight. Doctors have to prove there is an “exceptional clinical need” and no other medicine would be suitable for their patient.
The Government has made it clear the legalisation of recreational cannabis is not up for debate.
However, less than five responses were sent in, which has reportedly cast doubts over the panel’s effectiveness, The Independent reported last week.
Activists are now calling for the Government to abolish the licence fees and cite the thousands of patients living with conditions for which cannabis could potentially relieve symptoms.
Steve Moore, director of Volteface, a think tank that has called for drug policy reform, said: “The swift response by the Government this past month will be undermined if these fees are imposed at the end of the license process. I would call on the Government to abolish these fees with immediate effect.”
Recreational cannabis is an illegal class B drug in the UK, alongside amphetamines and barbiturates. Possession could result in a five-year prison sentence and those who supply the drug face up to 14 years in jail. Possession is illegal whatever you’re using it for, including pain relief.
Cannabis has been linked to improvements in chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy for cancer patients.
Blames Government
Lisa blames the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for her being homeless. She says she claimed Employment and Support Allowance – money if you cannot work because of illness or disability – in December and received a few weeks’ money but then it stopped.
“I knew I couldn’t have carried on working much longer with my health problems but then I was forced to sign on after I lost my business,” she said. “I was paid for a few weeks but I’ve had zero money from the Government from January to June. I was told they’d lost my paperwork. I’ve now had one payment in July but I’m still chasing the back payments.
“I’ve been living in my overdraft and I’m lucky I’ve had good friends to borrow money from and put me up otherwise I would have been going to food banks and been on the streets.”
