I'm epileptic, and cannabis is my saviour

OLIVIA BAYLISS

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I am 27 and I have smoked since I was 14. It hasn't killed me - in fact, it has literally saved me.

I forgot my pills while I was away recently. I was heading to the local park, just a three minute walk away. I could feel the right side of my body get tingles, a partial seizure - I know when this happens it's building to a full unconscious grand mal seizure.

I had to stop three times as the partial seizures started, and each time I sat down and had a puff. Marijuana was the only thing that would relax my neurosystem and over-stimulation - even the light and dark of the overhanging trees as I walked was enough to set off my epilepsy.

If it were not for my marijuana I wouldn't have even made it to the park. I would have had an unconscious seizure - a scary experience on a public street, and something that has no real warning.

I had a proper smoke when I got to the park, sitting in an open place just in case a seizure took place. I didn't hide near a bush or somewhere secret as we marijuana smokers often feel we have to.

At that point, I decided I didn't care whether someone saw me. Even if that person was a police officer, I would explain to them that cannabis was my one saviour.

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I realised how reliant I have been on it on a daily basis, for how it prevents neurosystem over-stimulation and regulates neuroreceptors and brain function.

I am 27 and I have smoked since I was 14. It hasn't killed me - in fact, it has literally saved me.

I'm not at the extreme end of bad health conditions, even on the epileptic spectrum. This means that although I have personal experience of the positive neurological effects of cannabis, I wouldn't be prescribed 'medicinal' marijuana.

I would be looked at sideways at the doctor's practice, considered a suspicious chancer as they questioned my current 'recreational' use.

If terminally ill people are refused it then the average person struggling with a daily condition doesn't stand a chance.

What's more, the only currently available product doesn't contain THC.

It's sad to think those who are dying begging for marijuana's pain relieving effects or neuro-regulating effects can't even decide what to put in their bodies - and why, because it might kill them?People don't die from the effects of cannabis. It benefits, not harms, the body.

It's a plant - I don't see how we can give people synthetic opiates and disallow this.

Shouldn't we have the free will to decide what we put in our mouths?