Even though I had sympathy from every person who I spoke to in Downing Street over the past few days, I still am not any closer to being guaranteed a meeting with Gordon. So just to show them that I mean business, I ok'd the article to be printed in Todays Herald. The article can be read here (you can leave comments!) or you can read the article in the content of this blog posting.

 I had just faxed the entire article to Gordon Browns office this morning. Lets hope that it will make someone there listen.

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TAKING CANNABIS BATTLE TO LONDON

DIANA PRINCE HERALD REPORTER

07:30 - 02 October 2007

A campaigner from Plymouth says he is prepared to "chain himself to Downing Street with a big fat spliff" to protest against the ban on medicinal cannabis use.Stuart Wyatt, who says the drug is the only thing which relieves the crippling pain he experiences from an undiagnosed illness, plans to demonstrate in the capital alongside other medicinal marijuana users from across the UK.

Mr Wyatt, 35, of Stonehouse, launched the website www.humedi.org.uk, which calls for a public debate on the use of the drug.

He has lobbied the Government by letter, phone and email for 10 months, but says he has been "ignored and persecuted".

The former musician now says he hopes more than 100 Humedi members will gather in the capital to "severely embarrass" ministers. "I'm willing to be arrested if it draws attention to the cause," he said.

"I've got nothing to lose. It's coming to the stage now where members of the organisation I started are planning to go to London en masse and hijack a famous London landmark within the Square Mile, and demonstrate loudly."

He added: "If nothing else works, we're going to chain ourselves to Downing Street with a big fat spliff."

He said the event would take place in the next couple of weeks if the Government did not respond, but he will not reveal the specific date or location of the event for fear of intervention by the authorities.

Use of the Class C drug is prohibited in the UK, and people who use it for health reasons, such as Mr Wyatt, risk prosecution alongside recreational users.

Mr Wyatt says he is convinced of cannabis's medicinal benefits, insisting he wants to make Gordon Brown realise that "the issue is not going to go away and neither am I".

He said: "For the past two years I have been distributing herbal cannabis through the postal system to benefit medicinal users, and will continue to do so until the Government makes this much-needed medicine available to those who need it."

Humedi is short for Humanitarian Medicinal Distribution and is a non-profit organisation.

If available, Mr Wyatt uses between 3.5g and 5g of cannabis a week, which he eats or inhales through a vaporiser, but says he has been prevented from doing so by a "massive UK drought". He says without the drug he can't sleep, experiences sharp pain all over his body, bladder weakness and shaking.

Medicinal users "feel like we're being tortured on a daily basis", he said.

"Gordon Brown said in his keynote speech that he's there for everyone in the UK and wants everyone in the UK to reach their full potential, but how can I do that when I feel like I've been strapped to a rack?"

Mr Wyatt has booked a 17-seater minibus to take protesters to the capital. Anyone wishing to join the demonstration can log on to www.humedi.org.uk

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 [10:15am] I just telephoned the lovely Yvone at the Downing street Direct Communications Unit to guarantee that the fax arrived, and asked her to cc it Sue Nye, Michael Ellam and the diary secretary. I will call back in a couple of hours if nobody gets back in contact with me.

[Edit: 12:15pm] BINGO! :) I've just got off the phone to Launa (the P.A. to Sue Nye). I think we have the meeting! The actual meeting looks like it will not be with Gordon Brown, but with someone high up in the Department of Health - Hopefully the health secretary, but if not, it will be at least his P.A. There is someone at the Direct Communications Unit who his contacting the DoH to find the best person to speak to us, and to arrange a time and date for this meeting. Someone from the DCU will be phoning me back this afternoon with some sort of confirmation!

I told Launa that I will continue to fight to at least be able to speak to Gordon Brown via the telephone for 5 minutes, as it is him who has said that cannabis will be reclassified, and him who has said that cannabis will never be legalised. I just want assurances from the top that medi users will no longer be persecuted, and that they will address the issue of medicinal cannabis prohibition with the utmost urgency.

[Edit: 3:15pm] I just had a rather confusing telephone conversation with Tommy Denning (0207 972 4829) from the Home Office drug treatment dept, who had received an email asking him to contact me. All he did was state the government policy and government line over cannabis - and to tell me that his office deals purely with the harm aspects of cannabis. What about the positive side of cannabis? There are far more positives than negatives! The poor man was totally out of his depth, and is now contacting the DCU to get someone else to call me. He also said that Anne Thyre (0207 084 2642) from the MHRA would be a good person to contact. I got an answering machine, left a message, then decided to phone No.10 again.

I tried to phone Sue Nye's office again, but was automatically put through to the DCU (they recognise my voice now). I hate to have to resort to dirty tactics, but through a little false bumbling, I managed to socially engineer the name of Gordon Browns diary secretary. Her name is not listed on any website that I have found so far. Her name is Leanne Johnston. Im going to call her now.