‘Only cannabis can ease my pain – so why must I buy from backstreet dealers?’

Janet Bond lives each tortured day in agony from an extremely rare muscle-wasting condition that causes her toes to bend like claws.

Charcot Maria Tooth Disease has led to severe problems with her legs and back.

Janet, registered disabled, has lost count of the number of operations she has endured, but the procedures run into double figures.

She can walk only yards unaided, uses a wheelchair and has a chairlift in her Birmingham home.

Janet’s problems are compounded by the fact that every painkiller she has been given sparks a serious reaction, she claims.

Twice, an ambulance has been called after medication caused crippling stomach pain.

“It’s like standing in front of a mountain,” she explains.

“The pain starts at the bottom and gets worse with every step you climb up, until it’s unbearable.”

She believes that cannabis – only recently approved as a prescription drug – is her last hope: the only thing that will free her body from round-the-clock agony.

But the 58-year-old has been told her condition is not among those that have been given the green light for medical marijuana treatment.

Janet, who moved to the Midlands from Leeds 13 years ago, candidly admits she has taken matters into her own hands. She now buys cannabis from backstreet dealers.

The medical profession’s rules about the drug have driven her to criminality, Janet insists at the Kings Norton home she shares with husband Steve.

She has pleaded with the pain management team at Edgbaston’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital for cannabis – but their hands are tied.

Her MP, Richard Burden, has been understanding and supportive, but he faces a regulation roadblock.

The burden of law weighs heavy on Janet – and she winces from the pain of it.

“Why do I have to keep suffering?” she asks.

“Do you know what it’s like to go without sleep for days? I feel as if no-one wants to help me.”

Janet’s life was normal until she reached her early 20s, when a series of falls signalled something was wrong.

She was diagnosed with Charcot Marie Tooth Disease, a condition which attacks the nervous system and eats away at muscle tissue.

The delicate bones in her feet have been fused into one.

A metal bar has been inserted in her right leg – “that was to stop me walking like a chicken”, Janet says – discs have been removed from the spine after her head lolled to one side. She has undergone a total knee replacement.

“I am in chronic pain throughout my body,” she says.

“That’s why I went to pain management at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. I am on crutches permanently and I have a wheelchair that can go in the car.

“From the front door to the car, that’s as far as I can walk.

“Whether I’ve taken paracetamol or opioids, the pain still comes. I believe they’ve permanently damaged my stomach.”

Husband Steve, aged 52, admits: “I’m disgusted with it.

“She is a person who cannot take any kind of normal pain relief – and the hospitals and GPs know that. Through the night I wake up and hear her yelp with the pain. She is actually yelping every single night.”

The Government’s hardline approach to medical marijuana softened after 12-year-old Billy Caldwell, who suffers from a rare form of epilepsy, was granted an emergency licence to be treated with the drug by Northern Ireland’s department of health.

On November 1, the go-ahead was given for products containing cannabis, cannabis resin or cannabinol, to be made available on prescription.

But they can only be prescribed by consultant medical practitioners at hospitals, not GPs – and they are only available in a small number of cases.

Those cases include nausea caused by chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, and for infants with severe epilepsy.

The guidelines clearly state cannabis products should only be given “where there is a clinical need which cannot be met by a licensed medicine and where established treatment options have been exhausted”.

When the move was announced, Home Secretary and Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid said: “Recent cases involving sick children made it clear to me that our position on cannabis-related medicinal products was not satisfactory.

“Following advice from two sets of independent advisers, I have taken the decision to reschedule cannabis-derived medicinal products, meaning they will be available on prescription. This will help patients with an exceptional clinical need.”

But Mr Javid stressed it was “in no way a first step to the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use”.

The pool of those eligible for medical marijuana is small and exclusive. Janet Bond is not among the swimmers.

“They say it’s for special cases,” she says. “I’m in constant agony and can’t take painkillers. It seems that’s not special enough.”

How cannabis can help ease pain

The main medical benefits from marijuana come from two “cannabinoids” – the active chemicals in the plants – called THC and CBD.

THC can increase appetite and reduce nausea. It may also decrease pain, inflammation and muscle control problems.

Unlike THC, CBD is a cannabinoid that doesn’t make people ‘high’ and can be useful in reducing pain and inflammation, and controlling epileptic seizures.

There are also those who believe also that cannabis has a place in cancer treatment.

The US Institute of Drug Abuse says: “Recent animal studies have shown that marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others.

“Evidence from one cell culture study with rodents suggests that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumours. Research in mice showed that treatment with purified extracts of THC and CBD, when used with radiation, increased the cancer-killing effects of the radiation.”

One of the NHS fears is that those who do not qualify for medicinal cannabis, may trawl the net for products.

Its website warns: “Some cannabis-based products are available to buy over the internet without a prescription.

“It’s likely most of these products – even those called ‘CBD oils’ – will be illegal to possess or supply.

“There’s a good chance they will contain THC, and may not be safe to use.

“Health stores sell certain types of ‘pure CBD’. However, there’s no guarantee these products will be of good quality.

“And they tend to only contain very small amounts of CBD, so it’s not clear what effect they would have.”