Ashburton man Mark Crotty is on a quest for legal cannabis to help him manage some of the symptoms he suffers from with Crohn's disease.

Cannabis has given Canterbury Crohn's sufferer Mark Crotty relief after suffering through almost three years of "constant, stabbing, radiating" pain.

Now he's fighting for access to medically prescribed cannabis. If approved, he believes this would make him the first Crohn's patient in New Zealand to get access.

The 26-year-old Ashburton man was diagnosed with the incurable inflammatory bowel disease in 2015. ​Five weeks ago he called it quits on almost all of his prescription medication and started self-medicating with cannabis daily.

JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Mark Crotty says to some degree cannabis saved his life, having suffered from Crohn's for almost three years.

During some of the most severe bouts of the disease he took up to 40 tablets a day including: three types of painkillers, sleeping pills, anti-depressants, anti-nausea and anti-inflamminatory medication.

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JOSEPH JOHNSON/STUFF Mark Crotty has stopped taking the majority of these pills and is self-medicating with cannabis.

But he found little relief from the medicine and still suffered from intense abdominal pain, nausea, fatigue, weight loss and diarrhoea.

Crotty believes "you shouldn't have to be on your death bed to get access" and is backing the introduction of prescribed cannabis products.

So far he has the necessary letter from his GP supporting his application to the Ministry of Health, but he's still waiting on the crucial backing from a specialist. He is hoping to get the go-ahead by the end of the year.

Before his diagnoses he and wife Jess Crotty lived a "very comfortable" lifestyle. "I had a great job and a company car."

But all that rapidly changed. Kilograms quickly dropped off the healthy 80-kilogram man and within months he weighed a "frightening" 62kg.

His "crippling nausea" meant he vomited at least once a day. "At times I had to go to hospital because I couldn't stop vomiting."

When he wasn't being sick he made constant trips to the toilet.

On average he slept for 16 to 18 hours a day.

"I lived in bed, I'd wake up and felt like I could go straight back to sleep again.

"I wanted to go back to sleep so the pain would stop."

Despite his severe physical symptoms the toughest aspect is his mental health. "Crohn's is lonely," and depression has crept in.

"The hardest part for me is watching Jess suffer. I feel like a piece of s... because I can't provide for her."

The disease is debilitating both physically and mentally, Jess says.

"I can honestly say we are at the end of our tether. We have tried it the clinical way for over two years, and I have to say, he has gotten worse, not better," she says.

Coming off most of his medication last month was "horrible". Crotty had cold sweats, uncontrollable shaking, headaches, nausea and nightmares for several days.

Now using cannabis he "feels amazing" comparatively. He hasn't vomited once and he's also put on about 4kg – both huge achievements.

"To some degree cannabis probably saved my life, I was getting into a very dark place.

"I'm enjoying​ food again. I've probably had one too many chocolate biscuits."

He smokes about 2 grams of cannabis a day, not enough to get him high he says, just enough to eradicate the pain and give him an appetite

At this point he'll smoke it regardless, but he'd prefer to do it legally and safely.

The problem is the supply and quality of the drug is not consistent, Jess says.

"We can run into trouble when we run out . . . When Mark had no cannabis for three days, the symptoms got so severe he ended up in hospital."

Mark has spoken with about 30 other people in New Zealand with Crohn's, all of whom are using cannabis to some degree.

"The people who want to do this are already doing it. Making medically prescribed cannabis available would only make it safer," he says.

"Cannabis doesn't fix everything, but it should be a tool in the tool box if it improves a person's quality of life.

"I hope people gain the right to choose how they want to medicate."