UNILADThe evidence and experience of Cannabis aiding the remedy of cancer is stacking up, and Bud Buddies are relentless in their mission to supply people in need.
Marijuana is being used medically all over the world despite the law in most countries depriving it of medical validity.
The UK is particularly ‘backwards’ in their ideology towards the legalisation of cannabis for medical use, as explained by Bud Buddies cannabis consultant Jeff Ditchfield.
Speaking to UNILAD, Jeff said:
It’s obvious that cannabinoids do have medicinal properties and medicinal benefits, as is being found out and practiced in many parts of the world, just not here, in the UK.
We’re so backward here. In Colorado, you can even get a joint just for recreational use. Here in the UK we’re so backward and we’re so conservative.
We have a Prime Minister who’s the daughter of a vicar and when she was at the Home Office, she made her views on Cannabis very well know. Let’s look at protecting the citizens in the country who are dying.
Don’t take my word for it. I’m following the science. If the viewer follows the science, logically they’ll come to the same conclusion as me.
UNILADJeff is part of a small, stretched team of people sacrificing their lives to meet the demand for quality cannabinoid products to treat serious illnesses like cancer.
There has been a marked interest around the subject of medical marijuana after Deryn Blackwell, 17, appeared on This Morning with his mother Callie, speaking out and claiming that cannabis helped save his life when he was told he had only two weeks to live.
Viewers were astounded when Deryn revealed he was now fully healthy despite previously suffering from Leukemia and Langerhans cell sarcoma.
Marijuana is legal for medical use in Australia, Canada, and in half of U.S states, but in the UK you face up to five years in prison for possession and 14 years for supply and production.
The official line from the UK government is that ‘cannabis is a very harmful, very dangerous drug that can cause huge mental health problems and addiction’ and that it ‘has no medicinal benefits in herbal form’.
Jeff has extensively researched the anti-cancer properties of cannibinoids and experienced incredible turnarounds of patients who turn to him as their ‘last resort after exhausting all the conventional treatments on the NHS’.
A 2013 survey of almost 1,500 doctors from 72 different countries revealed that 76 per cent of them approve the use of medical marijuana.
There is also mounting anecdotal evidence to affirm the staggering effect that cannabinoids can have on patients who are seriously ill.
During UNILAD‘s visit to one of the several cannabis compassion clubs popping up around the country, Jeff gave details of numerous cases that had been brought to him, saying he ‘has no choice’ in the face of desperate parents trying to save their dying child.
Jeff explained the dangers of cannabis prohibition:
The biggest problem in the UK is prohibition. Prohibition makes drugs more dangerous than the substances themselves, and that’s ridiculous.
Prohibition creates the environment where the gateway theory can happen because if you’re buying cannabis from someone on the street, then the dealer might say ‘yeah you come to me for a bit of weed, but do you want some coke, or a bit of MDMA’.
So it’s prohibition that moves people through the gateway onto harder drugs.
UNILADHe believes ‘the prohibition of cannabis is killing cancer patients’ because it does not enable them to get the help they need easily.
In order to fill a role that ‘the NHS should be doing’, Jeff is risking a 14 year prison sentence, his mental health, and all of his time because the parents have nowhere else to turn.
The science behind how cannabis fights cancer is explained through apoptosis (programmed cell death). THC attaches to cannabinoid receptors and translocates bad mitochondria and cancer cells to produce RNA that disintegrates the malignant cells.
Jeff explained why he does what he does:
The law is ridiculous in this instant. The only laws I break in the UK are cannabis laws, and the only reason I break them is because I’m being asked to by people who are dying and seriously ill. I have no choice in this matter.
What keeps me doing this is the parents we assisted whose children have gone into remission. We’ve got cases of teenagers who are now cancer free.
And that’s only because of the cannabanoids that we’ve provided. Because these kids, when their parents contacted us, they had exhausted all the conventional treatments available on the NHS. Bud Buddies were the last resort.
I can’t turn down a request from the parent of a dying child. If I refuse to help them because of my fear of the law, then these parents are going to get ripped off or scammed by one of the many online scammers that are operating in this industry.
Getty - pure cannabis oilJust as Deryn Blackwell’s mum explained on This Morning, Bud Buddies asserts that cannabis oil is not a cure for cancer, but is a treatment that can work in conjunction with chemotherapy to remedy the disease.
Jeff explains that it’s a treatment ‘because even children who go into remission, they still require a regular dosage to stop the cancer returning, so this is why it is important for us to teach these parents how to be independent’.
As written on Bud Buddies’ website:
The philosophy at Bud Buddies is to empower people to be self-sufficient, so all members are taught how to cultivate and we provide guidance on making cannabis preparations suitable to your condition, the guidance offered very much depends on the illness or disease of the individual.
Jeff focuses on empowering the parents of seriously ill children to be self-sufficient. They teach parents how to grow as well as providing facilities to test their plants.
Most children use cannabis oil in the form of caplets to treat their illness, administered sublingually.
Bud Buddies started concentrating on terminal cancer sufferers five years ago, but Jeff has personally had to start prioritising the parents of over 80 terminally ill children in the UK.
They received their first pediatric case three and a half years ago, and Jeff estimates that number will surpass 100 by the end of this year.
UNiLAD - JeffJeff went on to say:
I’ll happily do every day of a 14 year sentence if it means these parents have the facility to help their kids.
A mother brought her seriously ill 13-year-old child to Spain to see me. Two weeks before that, his oncologist had told them he only had a month to live. He had two forms of cancer.
We immediately supplied cannabis oil to her. He is now in total remission, he should have been dead two years ago. He is now looking at a career, continuing with his education.
The demand far outstrips the limited resources we have, and five years ago, Bud Buddies was assisting only adult users. We realised that for every adult sufferer we were assisting, we could help four children.
What we’re currently doing, as I’m travelling around the UK, is setting up cannabis compassion clubs around the UK. People can learn to grow and get the cannabinoid preparations they need for their cancer.
UNILADThis duty is not one that Jeff wants, but one he has out of necessity. He said he ‘would give anything not to have this responsibility’.
Though he would happily serve time in prison for this cause, Jeff urges the NHS to start supplying medical marijuana so that he doesn’t have to be a criminal anymore.
Jeff cites Colorado as a forward-thinking state that we should look to for inspiration, saying how law-abiding parents of sick children in the UK ‘hear about parents in Colorado whose children are going into remission because of cannabinoid treatment’ and question why we can’t have that here.
His words of advice to those interested in how cannabis can be used to treat cancer, are:
Do your research, look into the anti-cancer properties of cannabinoids, and research the work by professor Manuel Guzman at Madrid University.
Don’t do research on Facebook, do research at universities on scientific papers and learn for yourself, make your own judgement.
This is not bullshit, this is not false hope, this is fact: cannabinoids have anti-cancer properties.
GettyJeff confessed he ‘can’t see it being legally available in the near future under this current government’ because it is criminalised.
He poses an important question: “Who is the victim of my crime? I face 14 years in prison for a crime where there is no identifiable victim.”
In a country where there are hundreds of unsolved murders and a mounting homeless crisis, are medical marijuana growers trying to save terminally ill children really the problem?
