"United Patients Alliance"

I recently caught up with Clark French, and took the opportunity to get an update on his movement in the medical wave. The times are changing and people are slowly waking up to the progression of Cannabis. This is how we got on

I recently caught up with Clark French, and took the opportunity to get an update on his movement in the medical wave. The times are changing and people are slowly waking up to the progression of Cannabis. This is how we got on...

Your well known now in the medical movement we have in the UK. Tell the readers who are not familiar about yourself?

Clark says: " I was diagnosed with MS in 2010, I soon found that cannabis helped me more than pharmaceuticals and started campaigning to have legal access to it first with the legalise cannabis alliance ( RIP ) then I went on to found the Berkshire cannabis community one of the first and most active UKCSC clubs and more recently I have gone on to found the United Patients Alliance.

What exactly is the United Patience alliance?

We are a group of patients who all find cannabis helps us, we have come together to support each other, raise awareness of medical cannabis and to lobby for changes to the law.

You have met with several Members of Parliament and even appeared on Sky News. Tell us more about those events?

Over the years I have been campaigning I have appeared on BBC 1, BBC 3, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky news as well as many national and local news papers magazines and Radio programmes. The United Patients Alliance has some high profile support from Brighton MP Caroline Lucas, Caroline came and spoke at our launch night and has pushed for evidence based drugs policy, We had several high profile liberal democrats ( before they lost their seats in the last election ) most notably Norman Baker. We met with Norman several times and even went to the Home Office to tell our stories and talk about how medical cannabis helps us, we were the first patients to talk about how medical cannabis helps us at the home office, and subsequently Norman became the first serving drugs minister to publicly call for legal medical cannabis.

With the term ' Medicinal Cannabis' being thrown around a lot, what are your views as a real medicinal patient?

Cannabis is a neuroprotectant, it's impossible to not be a medical cannabis consumer if you consume cannabis at all! I think that everyone has the same right to put whatever they want into their own bodies. As long as it isn't harming anyone else then I don't see the problem. Let's not forget that recreation is used to promote happiness and well being so in my opinion recreation has therapeutic benefits too! Not everyone has the same need to cannabis, a cancer patient has so much more of a need to access cannabis than someone wanting to relax after work, but those people both have the same right to access cannabis.

Is CBD really as helpful for medical patients as the break through suggests?

Yes I think anyone with a serious condition could stand to benefit drastically from consuming CBD as well as other cannabinoids.

What do you find in particular helps with your M.S?

I find that THC is best for symptom relief but I want more CBD for long term progression. I like dabs the best – you cant beat getting a short sharp burst of cannabinoids – effective as soon as you exhale so in terms of pain relief dabs are fantastic.

How are other countries with regards to meds for people like yourself?

Well many are worse than the UK for example Malaysia still executes for trafficking so some places are awful, but many countries do allow patients access to medical cannabis. If I lived in the US, Israel, Canada and many parts of the EU then cannabis would be recognised as having medicinal benefit for me, I have two Californian doctors recommendation’s and support from most of my health care professionals here so it really is time the UK government woke up!

I recently asked you for help after a medical patient of mine was in trouble with the police. Can you give the readers the same advice?

The best advice is to contact release, they are a fantastic organisation who not only campaign for evidence based drug policy but also help many of the victims of the current war on people who some drugs.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to get involved with activism?

Find an organisation and get involved, there is plenty to be done! If you want to do your own thing that fine but get active! Speak to people about it, talk to MP's and politicians and raise the issue, tell people this is something you believe in, the more that do the sooner we will get to where we need to be, its hard and there are times when I think to myself “ why?” but over all its so rewarding, that in itself is a good enough reason for anyone to get active!

You recently successfully crowd funded the up and coming film “Grassroots', The Cannabis Revolution” and managed to raise close to 20k ( congratulations). Can you tell us a bit more about the film?

My cousin Dale has been making Grassroots' for the last two and a half years, he followed me to California, Colorado, Amsterdam and Barcelona as well as filming most major events in UK activism. The film is looking at the issue of the people behind the movement in the UK. I'm really excited about it, Soft Secrets readers should look out for the film's release in early 2016.

Finally you put in lots of time into your work, why is this issue so important to you?

Because of the injustice and I think it's because I know this is something where my story can make a difference and help to change minds. It's true that I probably spend too much ( if not all of) my energy on the campaign but it's the right thing to do, we fight injustice so that future generations don't have to. "