The people a restriction would actually reach

I have lived with chronic neuropathic pain since 2008. As a physician I know what the alternatives are, and as a patient I know what they cost: cannabis-based treatment lets me keep working, travelling and living without leaning on painkillers that would take much of my quality of life. I am not asking for a loophole. I am asking that decisions about access be made openly, on the evidence, with patients consulted. Care before discrimination means deciding in daylight.

I am 72 and an oncology patient — I had surgery for breast cancer. Because I know the illness can return, I do everything I can to stay well. CBD is part of that: it helps me with the stress of living with that knowledge, and with the serious sleep problems I had. I would rather not take antidepressants, and with CBD I don't need to — I have had no side effects, which matters a great deal at my age. I am supporting this appeal because I do not want to lose something that quietly helps me live better.

I have lived with multiple sclerosis since 2015. I am 48 and have two children. The illness has slowly taken things most people take for granted — walking, easy movement, restful sleep — and today I rarely leave the house without my husband's help and a cane. Over the years I have tried many treatments; nothing cures MS, but you try everything that might help you keep a little independence. CBD is part of what helps me manage some of my symptoms and sleep better, and when you live like this, even a small improvement changes the whole day. I still work part-time from home. I would simply hate for people like me to lose something that helps.

For more than eight years I have had recurring inflammation of the bowel. I have already had four operations, and doctors keep recommending another, larger one that I am trying to avoid. I am 48, and my wife has a severe form of multiple sclerosis — she is losing the ability to walk and needs more and more help, so I cannot afford to be the one who is ill. I live healthily and stay active, and still the flare-ups came back several times a year — each one meaning pain, antibiotics, hospital stays and weeks away from work. Since I began using CBD, those episodes dropped to about one a year, and at one point I went nearly three years without one. I am not an activist. I am someone who finally found something that, in my own experience, lets me keep working and caring for my wife.

As a single mother, a student and a nurse, a run of hard years left me with an anxiety disorder and panic attacks brought on by accumulated stress. My muscles were so tense I would stop breathing; I couldn't sleep; I was exhausted. Under medical guidance I began using CBD for sleep and recovery, and the anxiety and the attacks eased — calmly, naturally, without the side effects of the psychiatric medication I had been given. Around the same time my young son developed epilepsy, and with CBD we were able to halve the amount of his prescribed medication. I understand the need to act against dangerous synthetic substances. But CBD is not that, and taking it away from the people it helps would be a step backwards.

Nine years ago, at 36, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The treatment was half a year of hard chemotherapy and surgery to remove both breasts; later the disease returned and I went through it again, with radiotherapy too. I have been on hormone therapy ever since. Through all of it, CBD helped me with the things that make treatment bearable — appetite, sleep, the physical and mental toll — and it never once altered my mind: I could drive, I could work, I was fully myself. I understand the need to fight hard drugs and dangerous synthetic substances, and I support that fight. But CBD is not that. When I think that alcohol is legal, I cannot understand why anyone would take from patients the thing that genuinely helps us. Please don't.

About ten years ago, after a hard family period, my health fell apart — severe insomnia, tinnitus, anxiety, tremor, exhaustion; my doctor called it fatigue syndrome. I first tried the natural route — teas, tinctures, essential oils — which helped only a little, then several sleep and anxiety medications, which didn't help and gave me strong side effects. Then I learned about CBD. It helped me sleep almost at once — after about three years, I truly slept. I have used it long-term since, for sleep, calm, anxiety and social phobia. Because I rest better, I was able to return to work and manage an ordinary routine. I am grateful for how much it has improved my life.

My diagnosis is generalised anxiety disorder, with depersonalisation and derealisation. Years ago I began using CBD under professional guidance. At that time I couldn't go outside or live a normal day because of my illness. After a while my problems began to improve and some symptoms disappeared entirely — I have far less anxiety and my capacities have returned. My doctor approved my use. I can't imagine managing without it, and I have seen countless accounts from others it has helped. I am glad that the parts of hemp that contain no THC and are not psychoactive can be used this way.

My 23-year-old son has a severe form of autism with aggressive behaviour. On the advice of his psychiatrist, and after hearing from other parents, we decided to try CBD. He has taken it for five years now, and over time we found the dose that suits him. He became calmer overall, his aggression eased, and he is more focused and receptive; his immunity also improved and a pollen allergy disappeared. For people with this level of disability it makes a real difference — any discomfort or pain can otherwise trigger distress or aggression, and their care becomes extremely hard. I am grateful for something that helps my son and eases daily life for everyone who cares for him.

My son is 18 and lives with childhood autism, severe intellectual disability and hyperkinetic syndrome. He is non-verbal and needs constant care. From the age of four he had to be medicated so he would not harm himself — he was so active he could not stop, sleeping only a few hours. Medication helped him find the world around him, but as more drugs were added they helped less, and I did not want to keep increasing them. We gradually added CBD and CBG, and with them I managed to reduce his sleep medication by a third and stop one mood drug entirely. Today he is mostly cheerful, sleeps from about half past eight until six, has only rare outbursts, and can learn and take part at school and at home. I'm very glad we found something that helps him so much.

My son has an intellectual disability with features of autism, and sometimes reacts badly to people and to passing cars. Since we began giving him CBD, the situation has slowly calmed. His reactions worsened after his father died, but we kept on, and slowly but surely we again see improvement. CBD has helped others in our family too — for severe tinnitus that had made restful sleep impossible. I wanted to share our own experience, because for us it has genuinely helped.

My son began having symptoms — tremor in the hands, muscle pain — at 40, and after two years was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The medication he was prescribed only made him drowsy and sick, his doctor had no alternative, and one drug was unavailable for a year; without help his condition worsened until he could barely walk, his gait slow and uneven and his speech hard to follow. I looked for another option, and we began giving him CBD and CBG, raising the dose gradually. The improvement was clear: he was no longer slow to walk, and his speech gradually returned so he could be understood and began to think more about what he and others were saying. The tremor remains and he still takes his neurologist's tablets — but I believe the hemp preparations help his stability, speech and thinking, and ease the stomach trouble his other medicines caused. He is mildly disabled and depends on me; I am his mother, and I see the results.

Our thirteen-year-old son has an autism spectrum disorder, ADHD and an intellectual disability. He is non-verbal and needs round-the-clock supervision. The hardest thing is when he doesn't understand what is said — frustration and emotional instability follow, tipping into tearful or angry outbursts. With CBD and CBG his condition has clearly improved: these episodes eased significantly, he respects guidance more, reaches affective states only rarely, and functions better at school, in after-care and at home. He is less anxious and copes better in company. He has used these preparations long-term and the changes are plain to see — a real relief for us as parents.

Our son was a five-year-old boy with low-functioning, non-verbal autism and moderate-to-severe psychomotor delay when we began. Our first goal was simply better communication and more engagement with learning. Five years on, he manages the basics of writing, reading and counting, and this year he began to use speech — still very limited, but functional — with his vocabulary slowly growing, and he cooperates well at school. Our new goal is functional communication. We keep the dose steady; when we lower it, sleep problems, stress, aggression and less cooperation return. Thanks to CBD we have avoided any sedating medication, which matters a great deal to us.

A boy in our family, now a teenager, has lived with epilepsy and autism since infancy — at five months he began having seizures, and was later diagnosed with West syndrome. For years strong anti-seizure medication kept the worst attacks away but left him with little speech. Under careful guidance, and alongside his prescribed medicine, his mother began giving him CBD slowly, while his doctors' medication was gradually reduced. Over time his seizures became less frequent and milder, and — just as striking — his awareness and speech opened up: he began using many more words, answering questions, responding to those around him. CBD has not replaced his medical care; it works alongside it. For a child once almost silent, it has meant a markedly better life.

Our adopted daughter is seven. We took her in as a healthy four-month-old, but within days she began having seizures and was hospitalised for weeks. Genetic testing eventually revealed a very rare metabolic disorder alongside a form of epilepsy, and at discharge we were told she might live a year. Despite that, she has kept developing. The epilepsy weighed heavily, and combinations of anti-seizure drugs burdened her body without the hoped-for results, so we looked for another option; foreign studies pointed to good results with CBD in severe epilepsy. Before CBD she had as many as 30 seizures a day even on two or three medicines together; with CBD added and carefully adjusted the seizures eased, and she has had stretches of several weeks without one. She still cannot walk or speak, but today she swims, dances, loves company and laughter, and joins other children at a forest club. We keep looking for ways to make her days as good as they can be.