Chronic pain sufferer confesses to using cannabis before 'This Morning' appearance

Today’s episode (26 April) of This Morning saw chronic pain sufferer Carly Barton discuss the medical benefits of cannabis. To the surprise of hosts Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, she revealed that she had actually used some before she going on air, before explaining that she has started growing her own when it proved too dangerous to get it elsewhere.

“It wasn’t great,” the 32-year-old told hosts Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes when they asked how she got hold of the substance initially. “I have trusted people now. At first, I was going out on two walking sticks in the middle of the night in dark car parks and putting myself at risk.

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“At the moment we’re failing those patients,” she added. “That is their only option is to put their lives at risk.”

Barton, who has fibromyalgia, explained that the police are aware of her actions, but said that they responded to her confession by saying they “didn’t know what to do” about the situation.

She was the first person in the UK to be prescribed medical marijuana when she urged doctors to acknowledge the fact that her “burning, searing” pain wasn’t being eased by the morphine and fentanyl she was taking at the time. Not only was the medicine not working as well as she’d hoped, it also set her back a hefty £1,400.

Explaining why cannabis is often more effective than even the strongest of opioids, Barton said: “Opiates try and mask pain, it’s trying to push down my central nervous system. Cannabis is very different.

“You have receptors all round your body. They promote homeostasis. Anything slightly out of whack in your body it balances. With me, the cannabis goes straight to those receptors and calms down the pain so it doesn’t kick off.”

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She’s now pushing for amnesty legislation to be passed that allows chronic pain sufferers to grow their own cannabis from home – so long as they provide solid medical evidence before being put on an official register.

“We can’t sit in a situation and watch people suffer every day and not do something about it,” Barton urged. “I’m proposing people grow under the nine plant limit. That means under sentencing you would be charged with personal use rather than intent to supply.”