Survey on medicinal cannabis

[EmmaS-NRAS]

NRAS has been asked to make you aware of a piece of research being carried out on behalf of the Wellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in health by supporting the brightest minds.

Mosaic (mosaicscience.com) is a online publication from the Wellcome Trust that publishes long stories about science and medicine and how they affect our lives.

They are currently working on a piece about medicinal cannabis (marijuana) in the UK. As part of this story, they've created a short survey to find out what people living in the UK with chronic illnesses, life-limiting illnesses and/or disabilities think about the use of cannabis for medical reasons.

They would be very grateful if you would consider completing a short survey on this topic. The survey should not take more than 10 to 15 minutes to complete. People can access the survey by clicking on the following link (you may need to copy and paste the link into a new browser):

survey.euro.confirmit.com/w...

Any answers may be used anonymously as illustrative quotes in Mosaic articles, but no identifying features will be asked for as part of this survey.

If you have any queries, please contact me ([e-mail]). If you have any problems accessing the survey, please contact Laura Lunt ([e-mail]) at the Wellcome Trust.

[cathie]

I started on this survey and began to feel distinctly uncomfortable. So I stopped. Just to warn people, I would need more guarantee of confidentiality than appear here.

[Izzymimi]

Yes I agree Cathie l too felt uncomfortable so stopped after a couple of questions !

[Jeanabelle60]

It is telling when people are uncomfortable with taking part in this survey. I did complete the survey as I would like to see this particular drug legalised, controlled and monitored.......just like alcohol. No one would have any difficulties if the survey was about what you drink, unless you have a problem with your consumption. We all know the damage caused by alcohol but because it is legal we overlook the huge world wide damage this drug causes.......you don't hear that about a bit of 'smoke', do you? Yes there are problems with some people who have been lead onto other more dangerous activities, just like alcohol. There aren't hundreds of thousand of people in jails because the were silly laughing at something because they were high......how many people are in jail due to alcohol related crimes? Lives, families, business, careers the list goes on forever of the effect of alcohol in communities all over the world......but it 'legal'. If the same restrictions were applied to hash the crime related to people addicted to hard drugs would dramatically drop.....this has happened in other more enlightened countries.....Australia, Netherlands, US. Legalise, control, monitor......thats the way forward........ I went of in a bit of a speech/sermon there didn't I? Didn't mean to but I see sooooooo much damage caused by booze here in Ireland. Our young people falling/fighting/vomiting/having sex in the streets outside pubs/clubs, completely out of their heads on drink......I worry for their future and their livers! Having said all that I do like a drink myself so I'm not coming from any other agenda.......hope you are all well. Jean XX

[keeta in reply to Jeanabelle60]

Oh I so agree with you and would like to know what the effects would be. We take such dangerous drugs and that's ok but the government does a wobbler when cannabis is mentioned.

[Jeanabelle60 in reply to keeta]

Thanks for the reply......after so long. I never did hear anything about the survey, I wonder how it went. Anyhow I hope it prompts some sort of action from governments as it is about time that THC was made available as a natural choice for pain relief. I have four brothers living in the States where Pot, as the call it, has been decriminalised but is also available to buy as a pain relief option. You get a letter from your doc to say what is wrong with you and you buy your weed.....no problem. The state is getting so much revenue that everyone in the state got a rebate, first time in the states history. The crime rate has fallen, the police are available to do their jobs catching 'real' criminals, the jail population has decreased to a never before seen size.......what's to complain about? Now I have to say that I have tried smoke as a pain killer back when my RD wasn't under any kind of control but for me it just didn't take the pain away. It is said to work very well for people with MS though. I hope you are well and thanks again for your reply. Take care, Jean. XX

[keeta in reply to Jeanabelle60]

What an lovely informative reply Jeanabelle thank you .my son in law has ms so very interesting.

Take care love.

Kathy x

[Jeanabelle60 in reply to keeta]

Poor fella, very unfortunate. A neighbour of mine has MS and smokes reguarly as it really helps. I know of another young man with MS, although not personally and he too uses it. Have a word with your son-in-law......sure anything that helps! All the very best Keeta. xx

[keeta in reply to Jeanabelle60]

Thanx for your kind words x

[dtech]

Don't understand the concerns on confidentiality. There was nothing on it wanting names, addresses or even regions. So unless they were using sophisticated computer hacking systems to trace back who was doing the survey. Where's the worry?? And I agree with your comments Jean.

[keeta]

Server had problems connecting me seems an error occurred .strange

[nomoreheels in reply to keeta]

It's an old post keeta. The survey's probably complete so the link's no longer applicable?

[keeta in reply to nomoreheels]

Aw thanks and I was goin off on one ha ha .kathy.x

[EmmaS-NRAS NRAS]

Hi all,

For anyone who's interested, these were the results of the survey that the Wellcome Trust was running:

mosaicscience.com/extra/can...

Extracts from the survey were used in the following article: mosaicscience.com/story/can...

Kind regards

EmmaS-NRAS