30/06/2023
Dan shares his story with us as part of our cannabis people series: I live in Northern Ireland. It's beautiful, but like many others, it's been very hard for me to gain access to the right help, mostly in regards to education about cannabis.
I suffered from severe depression from a young age, and developed migraines after being attacked by an adult after school and having the bridge broken above my nose. I developed glaucoma, so the use of cannabis relieves this along with the migraines. As time has gone by, I’ve developed chronic pain in my back. This is the reason I currently qualify for a Cancard.
The use of cannabis helps me to live with pain, depression and migraines while giving me a sense of well being and belonging on this earth.
Seven years ago I started getting back chest infections from the toxic w**d that was available here. I was forced to grow my own for the health and safety of myself and others, although I have been arrested for this on two occasions. I was honest with the police and educated them about medicinal cannabis, as they were in my house for a while. I was taken to a maximum security prison for having three small plants. I didn't know when I would get out, I had no phone call, no solicitor and nobody knew where I was. I ended up in a cell with a he**in addict and he gave me oxycodone. I didn't feel like I was getting out anytime soon, so I felt helpless. It was extremely tortuous there, so I took it.
So in the end, I was ruined for a few years as I lost my job over this. I had become really ill due to the drugs I took in there, and malnutrition due to the horrible living conditions with drug addicts and violent offenders. I hope nobody else has to go through that over a plant in the future.
I can now lift my children up, teach them gardening and how to grow their own food.
Cancard has helped alleviate the pain of going through the most difficult part of using cannabis, law enforcement.
Thanks for sharing with us, Dan.