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IACM-Bulletin of September 6, 2015
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For the first time it was accepted that a pain patient had no other alternative than using cannabis to treat himself. Andreas Thörn, 36, from the city of Västerås was acquitted in the lower District Court of Västmanland for illegally growing his own cannabis at home. He had grown and used cannabis to ease his pain, which he contracted some 20 years ago in a motorcycle accident. Ever since then he has been in a wheelchair. Cannabis seems to be the only medicine that works in this case. Mr. Thörn has tried all legal medications without any success.
The sentence means that he will get back about 100 grams of home grown cannabis, which the police had seized. This is unheard of in Sweden with one of the toughest drug laws in the western world. Even for mere consumption there is a maximum penalty of 6 months in prison. The only allowed cannabis-based medicines are Sativex and THC (Marinol). But these are very hard to get and patients have to pay for themselves, which results in high expenses for the patients.
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