His cancer is thought to be gone.

In the United States, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, as arm of the Department of Health, has admitted in print that recent animal studies had found that cannabis ?may help kill certain cancer cells.? One study found that cannabis slowed the growth of cancer in one of the most serious forms of brain tumour. Another uncovered the fact that cannabis increased the cancer-killing effects of radiation. Studies into the effects of cannabis on AIDS, inflammation, pain, seizures, substance abuse and mental disorders are afoot. 23 out of 50 states permit cannabis for medical reasons, with legislation in other states in progress.

63-year-old Mike Cutler of Hastings, East Sussex, was diagnosed with liver cancer in 2009 and underwent a liver transplant, but cancer struck the new organ in 2012. Doctors informed him that he had only three months to live. He was “sent home to die with a suitcase full or morphine.” He then thought, “Hang on a minute,” and performed some investigation. Via YouTube, he heard of Rick Simpson, who claimed to have cured his own cancer with cannabis oil. Cutler followed suit and stopped taking morphine within three days of trying cannabis oil. After taking cannabis for a year, he shocked doctors when his liver was found to be free of cancer in May 2014. He described cannabis as “a miracle cure” and campaigned for legalisation of the drug but died only months later, with the cause of death presently unknown but unlikely to be cancer – he had been coughing up red stuff he presumed to be blood and a new complication of cancer, but which transpired to be dead cancer cells.

An unnamed pensioner in south Durham who is dying of liver cancer also recommended legalisation. She found chemotherapy to be “horrendous” and still suffers side-effects. The 63-year-old pays between £600 and £800 every three weeks for cannabis oil. Her cancer is terminal, but her doctor was gobsmacked by how little it had grown since she began taking cannabis. She declared, “I’d never used it before but I don’t want to die, I’m only young and I’ll do what I can.” She is sure cannabis would be legalised if David Cameron were in pain.

Harry du Plessis of Durban in Seth Effrika was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2013. He has taken insulin for the past 36 years because he suffers from diabetes. That same year, he began to use cannabis after doctors told him there was nothing more they could do. He began to take a gram of cannabis a day and no longer takes insulin. His cancer is thought to be gone.

55-year-old Corrie Yelland suffered a heart attack which necessitated a double bypass that left her in chronic pain. In 2011, she was diagnosed with anal canal cancer, giving her something in common with Farrah Fawcett. After two surgeries, she was told that not all cancer had been removed and she would require radiation treatment, which would cause second or third degree burns to her vagina, rectum and buttocks and possibly fuse shut her vagina or rectum. When she told her doctor she would have to consider the possibility, he replied that she had no more than six months to live without it and muttered about a “death wish.” Then she saw Rick Simpson’s video, Run from the Cure, which inspired her to try cannabis for the first time since she was in her early 20s. Her pain soon subsided – after four years. A doctor told her that her tumours had decreased in number and size. Friends often notice how much alive she is: “I have evolved from a pain-wracked, hunched over, shuffling along individual, to a vibrant, high energy person. Even my complexion has improved.”

There are many other such tales. Presently, the only prescribed drug in which THC occurs is Sativex, which is used to treat MS patients. The government ignored a petition signed by more than 200,000 people calling for the legalisation of cannabis, but perhaps it will bow to scientific evidence from a government body while lotsa anecdotes sway public opinion yet further.