"The prohibition on Cannabis is forcing many good people like myself to live a criminal life. Surely it makes sense to make this wonderful plant legal and to allow people to make up their own mind whether they want to use it or not?" - Danny Lino tells his story....

I was diagnosed with HIV infection in 1987. I had been a teenager in the late 70s and had experimented with injecting drugs, mainly speed and heroin. I never had a habit; it was just something that I played around with. Perhaps it was a sign of the times, the mood at the time was bleak, the music was bleak and the drugs were bleak. I was a young impressionable kid and I guess I thought it was cool. HIV wasn’t around at the time. Well, it was but I didn’t find that out until later.

 I cleaned myself up and trotted off to a bright new future at university with the world of punks, squats and drugs behind me. Or so I thought. The past has a funny habit of catching up with you, when you least expect it. In 1983 rumours started appearing. Gay drug users were being wiped by out by a mysterious illness that ate their immune systems. Since I wasn’t gay I didn’t think it affected me. Then the adverts came out. Gloomy synthesiser music, dry ice and the grey tombstone with the words “don’t die of ignorance” grimly etched upon it. I still have nightmares about that advert.

The information came out slowly but surely. It was a new type of blood borne virus. It was transmitted sexually or by sharing needles.  I had injected. I thought I might be at risk. It took me two years to get up the courage to go for a test. I told myself I was going to get away with it because I had only used needles on a few occasions. I was wrong. The test results came back positive and my life changed forever. 

I was well at first but slowly started to get ill with infections. I became rundown and depressed. I thought I was dying. I tried everything that was on offer. Alternate diets, vitamin supplements, all the natural alternatives. They helped but I was still prone to panic attacks, night sweats, nausea and loss of appetite.  I was deeply miserable and isolated.  I knew I was slowly sinking.

For the first few years after my diagnosis I lived as cleanly as I could. I swam, went to yoga and ate tofu by the bucket load.  My diet helped me with my health but I had lost any joy in my life. I thought my time was up and I was pissed off about it. I was only 27. 

One day a friend of mine offered me some of the joint he was smoking. It was the new breed of marijuana, skunk, which I’d never tried. I’d smelt it everywhere, that strange lemony smell which smelt like nothing I’d ever smelt before but I was wary of starting smoking again. I hadn’t smoked in 4 years.

I can’t remember why I accepted his offer. Probably curiosity or I was depressed or something. Anyway, I took a toke on his joint. It tasted lovely, a thick creamy smoke. I took another. It took the top of my head off. I had never smoked marijuana that powerful before. At first the experience was so strong it was confusing and disorienting I became frightened. After a while though I found I acclimatised to it, and for the first in ages I felt happy. It felt like I was being nourished by some source bigger than myself. It definitely felt like a healing experience. 

Afterwards I started smoking regularly. I find high quality cannabis to be of great medicinal value to me. I feel happier and clearer when I smoke it. It helps my nausea and gives me a great appetite. I feel positive when I smoke and it seems to help with my nerves and my condition in a whole host of ways. I feel creative and happy on it, which I think has a profound effect on my overall condition.

My main problem with it is the fact that it’s still illegal and you have to buy it off gangsters and the black-market, so I have started to grow for myself in a small indoor garden. I pay for the electricity I use, and intend to use it just for my personal use. I hate the fact I am forced to be a criminal simply to grow the medicine I feel I need. Cannabis is a natural plant that grows all over the world. It’s not a high profit drug manufactured by multi national pharmaceutical industries, which I think is partly why they don’t want it to be seen as possessing legitimate medicinal qualities, because it can’t be marketed in the same way as Prozac or all the other brain death pills they force down your neck when you complain that you’re unhappy with the way things are. 

Like all medicines Cannabis should be respected and treated accordingly. I know it’s not for everyone but it undoubtedly helps me and I have seen it work its magic on many others. It seems completely irrational that a plant, which grows everywhere, is illegal when alcohol and cigarettes are freely purchased on every street corner. I believe in a democracy we should have the freedom to think for ourselves and be free to act provided we are not harming anyone. The prohibition on Cannabis is forcing many good people like myself to live a criminal life. Surely it makes sense to make this wonderful plant legal and to allow people to make up their own mind whether they want to use it or not?

Peace