A medical hashish affected person says he feels he’s being “pressured out” of his hometown because of unfair discrimination by native authorities.
Danny Wilson, who lives in Norwich, says he has no selection however to rebuild his life elsewhere after therapy by native landlords and council officers has “made his life hell”.
The 44-year-old, who’s dealing with eviction from his present property, claims the council is insisting he disclose the actual fact he’s a medical hashish affected person to potential landlords.
Consequently, he says, all of his purposes have been refused.
Wilson, who lives with power ache following a automotive accident a number of years in the past, has been prescribed hashish by The Medical Cannabis Clinics since 2020.
He survives on employment and incapacity advantages and is pressured to depend on meals banks to be able to fund his prescription privately.
Wilson has been served two Part 21 eviction notices from his present tenancy, which the owner says is as a result of property being bought.
Nevertheless, based on Wilson, the eviction discover solely got here after he made his hashish prescription recognized to the owner.
Following an inspection, which he says “went badly when he instructed the agent he was utilizing medical hashish within the property”, Wilson approached Norwich Metropolis Council for assist to fund the deposit for a brand new tenancy.
The council agreed, however has since insisted that he disclose the actual fact he’s a medical hashish affected person, and that he must medicate indoors, to potential landlords.
He says all of his purposes have been refused on him disclosing this info, and consequently, he has been prevented from transferring from his present residence.
“They’re treating me in a different way due to my remedy, which they proceed to deal with as a bootleg substance,” Wilson instructed Hashish Well being.
“They’ve made me disclose the truth that I’m a medical hashish person on each software I’ve made, though I’ve knowledgeable them it’s traumatising me.
“They wouldn’t write to my medical physician about my case for over a 12 months, and all through have handled me like a drug person, not a disabled one who is susceptible and whose life they have been making hell.”
Wilson, who vapes hashish flower to handle his signs, says he has been on various events, if he may medicate outside.
One landlord is claimed to have instructed him he wouldn’t be permitted to vape within the property, because it wouldn’t be “truthful” to different tenants.
“They suppose it’s unreasonable for me to wish to medicate in a secure setting, and to be comfy,” provides Wilson, who has even put in a carbon filter in his room to mitigate the scent of hashish.
“There’s nowhere else for me to go, I don’t have a backyard and I reside on the sting of an property, the closest bench is in full view of the general public.”
The council can be stated to have steered that he take up residence in a rehab facility for ex-offenders, recognized regionally as Home of Genesis. That is regardless of the actual fact he has by no means been charged with a prison offence.
Wilson, who additionally has extreme nervousness, PTSD and ADHD, says the scenario, which has been ongoing for over a 12 months, has exacerbated his psychological well being points and left him with bodily sores from compulsive scratching because of nervousness.
He additionally claims that he has beforehand struggled to entry psychological well being companies within the space and nonetheless can’t entry therapy from his native ache clinic, as he’s a hashish affected person.
“They’ve made my psychological well being 10 occasions worse – I’m damaged,” says Wilson, who’s now contemplating transferring away from his adopted hometown.
“I simply wish to rebuild my life someplace else now, as a result of I’ve needed to undergo a lot right here, and it’s degrading,” he provides.
“However I’m devastated as a result of that is my residence.”
Hashish Well being has contacted Norwich Metropolis Council for remark and to verify the claims, however has not acquired a response.
What the specialists say
Stephen Cutter, solicitor and authorized companies supervisor for Release, instructed Hashish Well being: “The legal guidelines round prescribed medicinal hashish are comparatively unpublicised, and this might be one motive we see sufferers undergo from avoidable issues.
“The legislation is obvious in that it treats prescribed medicinal hashish and ‘illicit’ hashish, even when used for medical causes, as two completely completely different substances, and each native authorities and personal landlords might want to maintain this in thoughts when coping with sufferers utilizing their medication.
“The adjustments that allowed for prescribed medicinal hashish, additionally stated that sufferers weren’t to make use of it by smoking it although different strategies of consumptions, like the usage of vaporisers, aren’t restricted.”
He added: “If native authorities are imposing necessities for medicinal hashish sufferers to reveal their well being situations and drugs to entry housing, or if landlords are treating them in a different way to sufferers of different drugs, then I feel these sufferers may have a variety of authorized challenges they might discover.
“It’s an enormous disgrace that the stigma that many have in the direction of individuals who use hashish is extending now to these utilizing prescription drugs.”
Carly Barton, founding father of Cancard, an organisation which helps hashish sufferers dealing with discrimination, added that whereas a housing authority or council might request a replica of a affected person’s prescription, they “should not have the best to problem the place the affected person is consuming the drugs, as long as it’s being consumed as prescribed ie. by a vaporiser.”
She stated: “The rules listed here are clear and on this case the affected person has the identical rights to take their remedy as another prescription remedy.”
Affected person advocacy group, PLEA (Patient-Led Engagement for Access), can be supporting Wilson along with his case.
A spokesperson stated: “Public authorities have a authorized responsibility to respect your human rights in addition to comply with the Equality Act 2010. This prohibits degrading therapy and discriminating in opposition to you as per Article 3, and 14 of the Human Rights Act.
“PLEA could be involved to be taught of any native authority that may require a disabled affected person to reveal their prescribed hashish and medical situation/s to potential landlords, to ensure that them to obtain assist in having access to housing, and in doing so subjecting them to degrading behaviour, which carries the chance of long-lasting psychological hurt.
“If a neighborhood authority, has practices, guidelines, or insurance policies that locations disabled sufferers with cannabis-based prescription medicines, at a selected drawback then this might be grounds for discrimination, and we might encourage anybody to hunt assist in such issues. Particularly if this was not, one thing anticipated, or required of sufferers prescribed another managed medicines, and consequently the practices, guidelines or insurance policies, of the native authority locations disabled sufferers with prescriptions for hashish at a selected drawback.
“On this case, PLEA are actively supporting Danny, and can proceed to take action till a passable conclusion is reached, and ends in Danny being housed in a secure and appropriate setting, with the proper assist packages in place, to allow Danny to reside independently, and with out worry of shedding his residence as a consequence of his prescription.”