Photo: Christian said repeated high doses of painkillers made his body feel like a "haunted house". (ABC News: Mary Lloyd) Christian Read has taken everything from period pain pills to heavy opioid-based medication to manage the severe pain he suffers from multiple sclerosis (MS). "I have actually sat there and watched as my foot completely deformed in shape," he said. Mr Read has pain "quite literally from head to toe". As well as spasms that contort different parts of his b

A criminal case has dramatically collapsed after ACT police officers unlawfully raided a Canberra grow house. And in extraordinary allegations aired in court, police are alleged to have recruited a reluctant civilian informant into their investigation and pressured her to go into the grow house to check for plants. Police seized 119 cannabis plants from the man's home in a search later deemed unlawful.Credit:Rohan Thomson A court has heard police entered the Calwell home minu

The first time I used cannabis I was 19 years old and excited to try something new. I had one pot brownie and fell asleep in the back of a movie theatre. The only attention I drew that day was from fellow cinema patrons. My experience with cannabis did not result in the attention of law enforcement. For many, this is not the case. Canberrans still face the real prospect of a criminal conviction and jail time for their cannabis consumption. Michael Pettersson's bill would enab

Mental Health Minister Shane Rattenbury said he wanted to remove the stigma so cannabis users could seek help.Credit:Jamila Toderas Greens minister Shane Rattenbury says government must prepare for a surge in cannabis users seeking mental health support, if the drug is legalised in the ACT. However Mr Rattenbury said the increase would stem from existing users, who were too scared to seek help for their addiction while the drug was still outlawed. The Mental Health Mini

A bid to legalise cannabis in Canberra will be slowed by new parliamentary rules, despite support from Labor and the Greens. The Greens and the Labor executive have already flagged that they will make amendments to the private members bill from Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson when it returns to the ACT Legislative Assembly for debate next week. Michael Pettersson on the ACT Labor backbench.Credit:Karleen Minney However, the Assembly's new standing order requires all amen

The ACT Greens will move amendments to planned reforms to legalise cannabis possession to allow Canberrans to cultivate hydroponic cannabis in their homes, when a bill from Labor backbencher Michael Pettersson is debated this week. The cannabis bill will be one of the top hot-button issues debated when the Legislative Assembly sits from Tuesday for its first fortnight this year, along with proposed changes to tenancy laws, political donations laws and the state of the governm

Photograther: Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images A history of smoking cannabis has unexpectedly been linked to greater fertility in men. The result came as a big surprise to scientists measuring the sperm counts of more than 600 men from couples attending a fertility clinic. They expected cannabis to have a detrimental effect on sperm count and fertility. Instead, those participants who admitted ever taking the drug turned out to have higher sperm counts than non-us

Researchers record sharp improvement in measures such as quality of life, ability to dress and shower independently after 6 months of cannabis oil treatment Illustrative: In this photo from April 17, 2017, various cannabis oil products are displayed in the office of Georgia State Rep. Allen Peake, in Macon, Georgia. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Medical cannabis has been found to ease the symptoms of Autism in children, with little side effects, according to an Israeli study publi

Global health experts at the United Nations are recommending that cannabis and its key components be formally rescheduled under international drug treaties. Getty Images The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for whole-plant marijuana, as well as cannabis resin, to be removed from Schedule IV—the most restrictive category of a 1961 drug convention signed by countries from around the world. The body also wants delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its isomers to b