THC4MS Trial, Day Six, 12.12.06 Courtesy www.uk420.com

Today was another short one in Carlisle Crown Court, where the indisposition of the Crown barrister delayed the start. Mr Grout-Smith has acute kidney pain! He went to the doctor this morning and he'll go again this evening. I doubt if any doctor is likely to divine the probable cause of Mr Grout-Smith's kidney infection, but for the past week he has subjected himself to psychic attack from all right-thinking people, who consider his complicity in the persecution of good people to be shameful at least and, at worst, downright fucking evil. Certainly, I have been staring at his back, occasionally muttering such oaths as, "you bastard!" Do let's us hope that Mr Grout-Smith isn't seriously ill, or that he doesn't become so seriously ill in the future that he requires cannabinoid medicine. Because that would be too poetic.

Finally, we trooped into court around 11:15 and first Marcus and then Mark were taken into a room behind the dock to be searched for drugs by a truly brutal looking gaoler whose shirt bore the logo of 'GSL', which I take to be some private security firm. Because they can't recruit real policemen fast enough and don't want to be liable for their pension funds, the British governbent has authorised, if not necessitated, the employment of Neanderthal thugs to do its dirty work. This one - ugly, with a low forehead and piggy little eyes - wore a 2" think leather wristband on one arm, like a cartoon dungeon master. His dunce''s cap was invisible.

Mr Davies, appearing for Mr Davies, told His Honour Judge Phillips he had intended to raise two issues. First, he was going to make an application to introduce the massive pile of 1036 doctors' letters into evidence so that the jury could read some of 'em. But now he wasn't going to do that. I don't know why he bothered to bring it up, I'm just telling what he said. Second, he had proposed to call a Mr Brown, a forensic expert from London, to testify about the street value of cannabis. Yesterday, His Honour said he couldn't see the relevance. This morning, Mr Davies said he was reminded that Mark Gibson had already testified as to the street value of cannabis and his testimony had not been challenged by the Prosecution, so it had been established that the CannaBiz chocolate bars given away for a suggested donation of a fiver contained an eighth of an ounce of herbal cannabis worth twenty quid on the street.

Mr Davies explained to Judge Phillips that his client's defence was that Marcus Davies conspired with the Gibsons to commit lawful acts and that he took care to stay within the law as he understood it. In order to do that, Marcus needs to establish what he thought the law was, which entails a description if not a discussion of the 'medical necessity defence' which has been alluded to several times in court. "In my submission," Mr Davies said, "the jury cannot understand Marcus Davies' state of mind, unless they are informed of the background," i.e.: that a defence of medical necessity had been used in English courts until the Appeal Court judges ruled in the case of Quayle, in May 2005, that medical necessity was no defence in English Law.

The judge pointed out that this information was already before the jury as it had been read into the record as part of Marcus Davies' arrest statement. "It should be before the jury, your honour," insisted Mr Davies. Judge Phillips assured him that it will be: he'll inform the jury about the Quayle decision and also that it came after the Gibsons' arrest (and soon before Marcus Davies was arrested, coincidentally or not). The judge said that Mr Gibson, in his evidence yesterday, had said some things on the witness stand that he probably shouldn't have been allowed to, but there had been no objection, and that he would be similarly indulgent of what Marcus Davies might say under oath. However, said Judge Phillips, "I am not going to allow the defendant to say what the law is."

Mr Gibson had referred to 'six acquittals' and Marcus Davies could do the same. However, Mr Gibson was erroneous in his assertion that Tony Taylor had been acquitted, or that anyone had been acquitted of charges of supplying cannabis on the grounds of medical necessity. (In fact, Tony Taylor withdrew his medical necessity defence and pleaded guilty in November 2003. But I was there and heard the Judge's summing up to a court full of medicinal cannabis users, many in wheelchairs. He said he acknowledged that Tony was not a drug dealer in the conventional sense of the term and that he refused to make Tony a martyr by giving him a custodial sentence.) Judge Phillips also said that he will reserve his position as to how he sums up the arguments and directs the jury until after all the evidence has been heard and the legal arguments have been had.

Mr Davies said that, as well as believing that he had a defence in law, his client also needed to show the jury that he sincerely believes in the therapeutic benefits of cannabis. Like the other defendants, Marcus Davies had submitted written evidence to the House of Lords Science & Technology Committee. When its 9th Report was published in 1998, Marcus downloaded and read it avidly and found that it confirmed his opinion that cannabis did have medicinal benefits, particularly in connection with multiple sclerosis. Therefore, it was necessary for Mr Davies' defence to draw the jury's attention to at least a couple of relevant passages in the Report.

Mr Grout-Smith, not wincing nearly enough as he climbed to his feet, said it was irrelevant. "The reason for the supply (of cannabis) is irrelevant and therefore the materials upon which (Mr Davies) formed his reason is doubly irrelevant." It was the view of the the Crown that such an admission would inevitably lead into the "vexed question of whether cannabis is good or not. And, in my submission, that's not what this trial is about." At which, the sly old judge, if I heard him right, remarked, "We haven't quite got around to deciding what this trial is about yet, have we?"

Grout-Smith, or 'Grouty' as he's no doubt known by the cons, said he couldn't allow the defence to quote passages of the HoL report out of context. Even on a first perusal of the document, Grouty said that that if Davies wanted to quote paragraphs 8.1 and 8.3 then para. 8.2 must also be included. He couldn't permit the defence to give the idea that cannabis is good because, only this morning, he read in The Times (no doubt while waiting in the doctor's surgery) that the 'largest research project conducted hitherto' had concluded that cannabis use had 'serious psychotic side effects'! "The public gallery is moaning (actually, I muttered, 'wanker') your Honour, but it is far from..." I didn't quite catch what happened next because I was concentrating on trying to make Mr Grout-Smith's kidneys explode. But I guess the judge said, right oh, we'd better get some copies of this Report made then and let's all have a butcher's.

So, then there's a break until 12:10. Judge Phillips told counsel he 'reserved the position' that a genuine belief that you're not breaking the law does not give you immunity from the law. Of course, he would say that because he is a Judge and therefore he thinks that the Law is what he says it is. Anyway, the relevant bits of the Ninth Report of the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee were agreed to be paras 8.1/8.2, and 8.23, iv-vii). And then at last it's on with the show. The jury came in at last for curtain up at 12:15. Mr Ford, Lezley's barrister was going to have to shoot off at one, but agreed to linger for fifteen minutes longer, so that the court could get in a full hour-long session today.

Marcus took the stand and swore by Almighty God, as I notice everybody else has: all the jury and every witness, so far, apparently believe in an Almighty God who is outside of themselves and will smite them if they don't tell the Truth. At least Marcus used heavy dramatic emphasis when he said, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth. Because, of course, he is not going to be allowed to tell the whole truth. The English Law has decreed that the Whole Truth is no longer relevant when it comes to prosecuting seriously ill people for helping themselves to effective medicine. Because then the true nature of the Beast might be revealed. But I digress:-

Marcus began his testimony with an explanation of his medical conditions, the most serious of which are Grand Mal Epilepsy and Type One Diabetes with serious complications including neuropathy (leg spasms), necropathy (kidney pain) and retinopathy (blistering at the back of the eyes). Happily, however, he can control these conditions with cannabis. "I use cannabis because it works," he said. "It controls all my symptoms." That's why police found cannabis plants growing at his home when they swooped. They were for his personal use. "I am a medicinal cannabis user, but THC4MS can't really help me, so I help myself."

Mr Davies then read the agreed sections of the HoL Report. I didn't write it all down (it's online you lazy swine) but it included the recommendation that clinical trials with cannabis should be conducted as a matter of urgency and that alternative methods of administering cannabis to smoking should be sought. Like, you know, chocolate. Both Marcus Davies and the Gibsons had contributed to this Report in 1998, but they didn't now each other then. They met, as we've heard, in 2000, at a conference in Norwich (obviously the LCA annual conference, but nobody's said so).

When Marcus met Mark and offered to do a web site for THC4MS, he did ask if he might try some of their chocolate, but was refused because it is for MS sufferers only. Marcus Davies may be ill and he may use cannabis medicinally, but he can't have CannaBiz chocolate from THC4MS because it is intended exclusively for multiple sclerosis patients. "We're not able to help everyone who could benefit from cannabis, because the law would frown on that, but we knew we were on safe ground with MS," Marcus said. He then read then mission statement that has appeared on thc4ms.org since its inception. No, I'm not going to repeat it. It's still there: the one about carrying on supplying MS sufferers until the legal alternative become available in 2004. You know, that legal alternative that became available in 2004, but actually isn't available because the MHRA won't give it a license.

Marcus went on to describe his relationship with the Gibsons and Mark in particular: "9 times out of 10, Mark initiated changes on the web site... He knew how to write things and I knew how to publish them on the internet". Marcus had never played any role in the manufacture of CannaBiz chocolate. His role was to maintain the web site, for which service he certainly wasn't paid. "Money is irrelevant and has never been a consideration (in THC4MS)" said Marcus Davies, who lives on disability benefit, plus a pension.

In 2002, after he had been involved with THC4MS for a while, Marcus had a phone conversation with Mark in which he was told about a meeting Mark had with the Cumbria Police, who had suggested that THC4MS should not be so 'blatant' in their activities, so far as talking to the press was concerned, and that they should move their operation out of Cumbria. By using a PO Box address in Huntingdon, "we did what the Police advised," said Mr Davies. He took on a more secretarial and administrative role within the organisation for practical reasons but also in the conviction that, in the event of being prosecuted, he had a defence in law.

Mr Davies - or should I say, the Mr Davieses? - then moved on to the subject of THC4MS accounts. When THC4MS first started using the PO Box, Marcus emptied it twice weekly, putting the contents into silver Special Delivery bags and forwarding it North. But that was expensive and a bit daft. People might send chocolate, as a donation, but it cost more to send it on to Alston than it would cost to buy in Alston. So, it was agreed that Marcus should start opening and sorting the mail before sending it on, counting the money and clearing any cheques through his wife's bank account, which he did during the period from March 2003 until March 2005. For about six months during that time, by agreement, Marcus deducted ten percent of the value of the cheques he cashed to cover his expenses: the PO Box is located some 20 miles from his house and he needed to pay for petrol and parking.

Marcus Davies also set up his own grow and he may have used some of the money to buy lights and other equipment (he spent four hundred quid on hydro gear, but soon ditched it and went the organic route). But he never grew cannabis on behalf of THC4MS. The Davies family weekly income was detailed and Marcus was asked about additional income. He explained that Penny Thornton, the astrologer who paid for the PO Box, is a friend whose web site he maintains for free, out of friendship. Unable to work, Marcus's needs an absorbing hobby and he's found one in t'internet (and in his growroom. Sound familiar?). Finally, Mr Davies asked Marcus Davies about the suggestion that his domestic bills had been defrayed from THC4MS money. "It's rubbish!" said Marcus, indignantly. "We were told that we wouldn't be talking about bank accounts, but here we are..."

Mr Grout-Smith opened his cross-examination by deploying his favourite, if tired tactic of asking the defendant to admit their guilt. In this case, when Marcus declined to do so, Grouty expostulated, "Come on, don't disappoint me". Marcus said he didn't know where the cannabis chocolate was manufactured. Although he thought it might well have been chez Gibson in Alston, he'd never been there, had never discussed it with Mark Gibson, and could not say for certain. "Did you think he was selling bricks?" G-S asked. "He wasn't selling anything," Marcus shot back.

Having resoundingly lost that exchange and no doubt feeling a little bilious from the prescribed medication for his kidney infection, Jezza turned his attention to the growing operation that police discovered (and smashed up) at the Davies' home near Huntingdon. Asked why he was growing cannabis in three sheds in his garden, Marcus said, "It was necessary to do it for the good of my health. It works as well!"

"How do you take you own cannabis, illegally?" asked Mr Grout-Smith. Marcus said he smoked it or used a vaporiser. He said that the two grinders found at his home contained two different strains of cannabis, which he used to treat different symptoms. He said, "the THC supply of cannabis has nothing to do with me". He also clarified the position regarding Penny Thornton's PO Box: it's not hers. She pays for it, but Marcus is the registered keeper and the only one who has access to it. So it's his. The exchanges between Marcus Davies and Jeremy Gut-Ache were getting sharper as lunchtime loomed, but then the Judge called time.

Grout-Smith requires perhaps another fifteen minutes to conclude his cross-examination of Marcus Davies and make his poisonous insinuations and then Michael Davies may wish to spend another fifteen minutes repairing any possible damage sustained to his client's reputation. Which is to say that the defence needs another half hour or so to be concluded and then - hoorah! - we can at long last get to the legal arguments. In order not to inconvenience the jury too much - some of whom travel 40 or 50 miles from West Cumbria to the court - the judge suggested that the rest of Marcus evidence could be heard on Thursday morning, starting early (for them!) at 10:00am. That leaves all tomorrow for obtuse legal wrangling.

I don't want to miss the closing speeches and judges summing up. It will be particularly interesting to see if he directs the jury and, if so, in what direction. But that's not going to happen until Thursday and I'm booked on a train back to London tomorrow night. I'm going to leave it 'till lunchtime to decide whether to change my ticket and hang on for the verdict, because nothing seems certain. Mr Grout-Smith's kidney infection could get a lot worse overnight, or whatever. Tomorrow's legal arguments might collapse the whole case.
elsie haze Reviewed by elsie haze on . court reports for thc4ms days 1-5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THC4MS Trial - Day 1 THC4MS, Day One Personae: His Honour, Judge John Phillips presiding Mr Grout-Smith for the Crown Rating: 5