| Photo: Free Peter Davy |
| Peter Davy: “My partner has advanced multiple sclerosis and I am her 24-hour caregiver. She is dying and will die without me.” |
Peter Davy, a medical cannabis patient in New Zealand who suffers from cancer, deserves compassion and should not be sent to prison as a judge has threatened, according to activist group Greencross Auckland.
Davy, 51, who lives in Canterbury, New Zealand, has vowed to go on hunger strike if sentenced to prison.
“I want to make it clear that I will be going on a hunger strike the moment I am given a prison sentence and I absolutely do not want to be force fed under any circumstances,” Davy said. “I will also be refusing all cancer medication. I am 100 percent committed to continuing with a hunger strike until I am dead.”
“Here is a man capable of managing his own pain using medicinal cannabis while at the same time caring for a partner with multiple sclerosis,” said Greencross Auckland spokesman Stephen McIntyre.
“My partner has advanced multiple sclerosis and I am her 24-hour caregiver,” Davy said. “She is dying and will die without me.”
“On February 15th, 2011 I pleaded guilty in Tamaru Court (New Zealand) to cultivation of cannabis and associated charges,” Davy said. “The judge told me to expect a prison sentence on March 16th when I go up for sentencing because it is the fifth time I have been convicted.
| Photo: 3 News |
| Peter Davy, left, and partner Tracey Perrin, who suffers from multiple sclerosis |
”I appear on March 16th, and thanks to the efforts of hundreds of supporters, we managed to fill the courtroom,” Davy said. “The judge this time was still planning to send me to prison, but at the last minute delayed the sentencing until April 20th to allow me to provide more evidence.”
“Surely compassion can be shown with Peter spared from incarceration thus saving the couple — who already have enough to cope with — from any further suffering?” McIntyre said.
“Have a heart!” McIntyre said. “There’s been no evidence of dealing; why does Peter deserve incarceration for growing his own cannabis as medicine?”
| Photo: Stephen McIntyre |
| Stephen McIntyre, Greencross Auckland: “No one can question his validity of using cannabis for pain or MS” |
”No one can question his validity of using cannabis for pain or MS,” McIntyre said. “The legal prescribing of medical cannabis in Canada, Europe and the United States for both conditions attests to its efficacy.”
“In New Zealand however only a few people are permitted to use Sativex — a highly expensive cannabis extract in spray form — for multiple sclerosis, while anyone choosing to grow their own herbal cannabis — like Peter — runs the risk of arrest and imprisonment,” McIntyre said.
Greencross Auckland believes where patients have obtained the support of a medical professional to use cannabis, they should be allowed safe, legal access to the highest quality medicine, according to McIntyre.
“We are committed to supporting the rights of sick, disabled and dying patients in choosing to use medical cannabis and assisting them in seeking support from their doctors and specialists to do so,” McIntyre said.
The majority of New Zealanders support changing to law to allow for medical cannabis, according to public opinion polls, McIntyre said.
“Greencross Auckland supports the recommendation made last year by the Law Commission that herbal cannabis be legally allowed here with patients able to obtain prescriptions from their doctor and cultivators licensed in the same way as other legitimate producers of controlled drugs,” McIntyre said.