<p>Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders</p>

Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 28 February 2017.

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Photo of Leanne Wood Leanne Wood Plaid Cymru 1:45, 28 February 2017

Well, I very much hope that we do see extra resources for this, leader of the house. The lack of availability of Sativex has led people to pursue alternatives of their own. I recently met with a 64-year-old woman from Cwmbran who has primary progressive MS. She experiences pain and spasms on a daily basis, and her daily drug regime includes morphine, codeine, paracetamol, pregabalin and diazepam. Because Sativex isn’t available in her area, she uses cannabis as a replacement, obviously risking problems there with the law. How is it okay to take morphine, but by buying cannabis she risks prosecution?

On 10 February, following a Government-commissioned review, Ireland joined Canada, the Netherlands, Germany and many other countries around the world in recommending that cannabis should be legalised for medicinal use. There’s also support for this in Scotland, and we’ve heard at least one police and crime commissioner from Wales recommend that the same thing happens here. Will the Welsh Government follow our Irish and Scottish counterparts and advocate the decriminalisation of cannabis to relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and other conditions?