[420 Girl]

Spain has revealed its more liberal side as Catalonia’s health department is allowing the use of marijuana to counteract the side effects of chemotherapy. Though the Spanish law still regards marijuana as an illegal drug, and individuals can be stopped and searched, cannabis seeds have been legal for several years and most garden centres sell them.

However, up until now police have been encouraged to search people they suspect of carrying hash, and then arrest the individual if their suspicions are proven correct.

The new law changes that somewhat, if only within the Catalonia region. At a time when Gordon Brown is attempting to get Marijuana reclassified from a class C drug back to class B, the decision by Catalonia’s regional government seems far more enlightened.

Until now, Canada was the only country where the use of cannabis to treat patients suffering from neurological conditions and multiple sclerosis had been approved.

Marina Geli, Catalonia's regional health chief, told reporters that the measure to allow patients to use medical marijuana will be done as a gesture of compassion toward the suffering endured by cancer patients, by helping to treat the nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy.

When the UK government reclassified cannabis as a class B drug in 2004, the initial concern was that use of the drug would rise. However, Home Office statistics show that while from 1996 though 2003, the percentage of 16 to 24-year-olds who reported using cannabis was around 27 per cent, the latest statistics show that the number has dropped to less than 21 per cent, the lowest number of all the years reported.

As Catalonia’s cancer patients breathe a big, sweet sigh of relief, perhaps Gordon Brown should think about this, before returning cannabis to its illicit, and therefore more exciting, class B status.

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