NORML has worked with Danuiel since 1993 to get a license under section 22 of the Misuse of Drugs Act Regulations. His application met the criteria for such a license, but Jenny Shipley and Maurice Williamson, then Minister of Health and Associate Minister of Health respectively, turned him down in 1994 on advice from the National Drugs Intelligence Bureau. He then moved to the Coromandel and continued to grow his own medicine, with the full knowledge of the local police.

22/07/99 Tetraplegic Jailed For Medicinal Cannabis
22/07/99 Tetraplegic 'left on jail floor'
22/07/99 MP plans to visit tetraplegic man in jail
22/07/99 Greens go to Rights Commissioner over prisoner
23/07/99 Tetraplegic may sue over 'jail hell'
27/07/99 Tetraplegic Cannabis User Freed Today
27/07/99 'Idiotic' policies put tetraplegic in prison
29/07/99 Jail term fails to stop pot-smoker
07/08/99 Tetraplegic pushes for drug leniency
12/01/00 Jailed man angry that billionaire walked free
26/5/01 Plea To Allow Medical Use Of Cannabis

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Jailed man angry that billionaire walked free

NZPA / Christchurch Press, 12th Jan 00


Danuiel Clark with some cannabis plants. Photo Waikato Times

Waihi beneficiary Danuiel Clark, who grows and smokes cannabis to relieve pain, says it is unfair he was jailed for 21 days and the billionaire America's Cup visitor was let off and given name suppression.

The 66-year-old visiting businessman appeared in the Otahuhu District Court on Friday.

He admitted three importing drugs charges after being caught with more than 100g of cannabis leaf and resin.

Judge David Harvey discharged him without conviction and said suppression was appropriate because naming the businessman would "far outweigh" the crime.

Mr Clark, whose two bank accounts each have less than $100, said that was unfair.

"Do the courts only work ... by how healthy your bank account is? They threw me in jail."

Mr Clark became a tetraplegic after a road accident in 1991.

He said smoking cannabis relieved pain while stronger, legally prescribed drugs such as morphine and valium left him a "zombie".

The 30-year-old was jailed last July after police caught him growing six 30cm-high cannabis seedlings in a wardrobe. It was his seventh cannabis conviction.

He refused to do community service or pay a fine and was sent to Waikeria Prison.

He later claimed that no-one at the prison took him to the toilet and he was left to wallow in his own excrement for four days.

Waikeria Prison has said his claims are untrue.

Mr Clark, a legalise-cannabis activist and spokesman for the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, has vowed to continue smoking and growing cannabis.

Waihi police Senior Sergeant Brian Millar refused to comment on Mr Clark but he added: "We just enforce the law, everything's black and white as far as I'm concerned."

WAIHI - Three small cannabis plants are just starting to flourish in Danuiel Clark's lounge.

The Waihi tetraplegic sowed the seeds just before he was jailed for possession of marijuana last month. He wanted a new crop waiting for him on his release.

Now he is using his 12-day prison stint to push for reform of drug laws. He says marijuana eases his pain and violent spasms much better than prescription drugs. He will keep smoking dope, he says, and is quite willing to go back to prison.

"I get treated just like a rapist or murderer," he says. "Justice hits everyone with the same stick."

The 29-year-old lost the use of his legs and partial use of his arms after a road smash in Greece in 1991. He made headlines two weeks ago when friends claimed he spent two hours lying on a Waikeria Prison cell floor after having a spasm.

Yesterday he talked to his lawyer about possible legal action, and was told to say little of the incident.

However, he did say he was "shattered" by prison life.

He is bitter at the police, who have now busted him six times and taken all his indoor grow gear, including lamps. He is also angry at local burglars, who brazenly walked into his home early this year and stole marijuana while he lay helplessly in bed.

But Waihi police say they treat Mr Clark like any other drug grower.

"We don't have any feelings for or against the guy," says Senior Sergeant Brian Millar. "He's just someone who's offended and we've put before the court."

Mr Clark says that half the sick people he knows who have been prescribed morphine-based pills sell them to junkies and use the cash to buy marijuana. That's a bad thing, he says.

A better system would be for the Health Ministry to give sick people special leeway to grow a limited number of plants for their own use. Six female plants should be enough.

A prison worker said last week that Mr Clark had embellished tales of his prison stay to further his political cause. But Jeanette Fitzsimons and Nandor Tanczos from the Green Party have vowed to push the matter before the Human Rights Commission.

Whether or not Mr Clark wins his battle, he says he will keep smoking 30g of dope each month in his Housing New Zealand home, which he shares with two dogs.

"I refuse to conform," he says. "The only evil here is the police coming in all the time."

Mr Clark was given a jail sentence in the Waihi District Court on July 13, after admitting two charges of cultivating cannabis and refusing to pay a fine or do community service or periodic detention.

Yesterday he would not talk about claims made by friends to the media that he could not get to a toilet or shower for days and lay on the floor for hours because prison staff could not care for him. He was seeking legal advice about action he could take against his jailers.

"But I'm pretty shattered and disgusted at the way I've been treated."

Although his stay had been worse than expected, he believed he should be allowed to grow and smoke cannabis for medicinal reasons and would continue to fight for that right - even if it meant going back behind bars. Mr Clark broke his back in a road accident and has been fighting since to use cannabis for pain and to prevent spasms.

"I refuse to take any of the prescribed drugs, because they don't work that well and just leave me feeling like a zombie," he said.

"Cannabis is better because it takes the sharpness off the pain and at the end of the day I'm not hurting anyone else."

The Department of Corrections denied claims that Mr Clark had spent hours on the floor of his Waikeria Prison cell because guards failed to do their hourly rounds.

A spokeswoman said: "He actually said to the staff member who found him after falling on to the floor that it was lucky they did the rounds so often because he hadn't been there long."

She said Waikeria staff were disappointed by Mr Clark's claims because they had gone the extra mile for him.

Mr Clark was later transferred to Mt Eden Prison, where 24-hour nursing care was available.

Clark served 11 out of his sentenced 21 days in prison.

Clark was picked up from prison by his spokesperson Nandor Tanczos, the Green Party candidate for Auckland Central.

Tanczos said Clark is having a medical check up and will be meeting with a lawyer to discuss his legal options this afternoon.

Green Party candidate Nandor Tanczos, who visited Danuiel Clark yesterday, said his friend was angry at his treatment at Waikeria Prison.

His case was also last night headed for the Human Rights Commission, after Green MP Jeanette Fitzsimons decided to step in.

A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said prisoners were made well aware of their rights to lay an official complaint, but Clark had not yet done this and an investigation could not be undertaken until then.

In the Waihi District Court a week ago, the pro-marijuana supporter was sentenced to 21 days in jail for cultivating cannabis, after he refused to pay a fine or do community service or periodic detention.

The wheelchair-bound man was initially sent to Waikeria Prison, but its cells were not set up for a tetraplegic prisoner.

Guards had been told they were expecting a disabled inmate, but they were unaware Clark was a tetraplegic, which meant special equipment had to be found from outside the prison.

Clark was transferred to Mt Eden Prison on Tuesday, where he has 24-hour nursing care.

Mr Tanczos said that at Waikeria, Clark had spent two hours lying on the floor of his cell after suffering a muscle spasm while trying to change his excrement collection bag.

However, a Waikeria Prison source believed that Clark had made his stay sound worse than it was as part of a political protest.

"Why else would he go straight to the media about this and not to the prison officials?" the source said.

But Mr Tanczos said his friend had been unaware that he could complain to the Prison Inspectorate.

"That's something we'll now look at, but he's still determined to take legal action."

Clark broke his back in a road accident and has been fighting the Government to use cannabis to relieve pain and prevent spasms.

Green Party candidate Nandor Tanczos said Danuiel Clark was forced to languish for days and ended up defecating in his wheelchair.

He said the prisoner was also left on the floor for hours after he fell from his bed.

Clark, a tetraplegic since 1991, was sentenced in the Waihi District Court on Friday to 21 days in jail after admitting two charges of cultivating cannabis and refusing to pay a fine or do periodic detention.

Judge Russell Callander, who sentenced Clark, had requested a pre-sentencing report.

But Clark insisted on being sentenced immediately.

The manager of Waikato-Bay of Plenty prisons, Harry Hawthorn, said Waikeria Prison had been warned it was receiving a wheelchair-bound inmate on Saturday but was not told he was tetraplegic and was not equipped to care for him.

Clark was transferred to Mt Eden Prison on Tuesday, where he has 24-hour nursing care.

Green MP Jeanette Fitzsimons last night called for his sentence to be lifted or served in a hospital.

Clark broke his back in a road accident and has been fighting the Government to use cannabis to relieve pain and prevent spasms.

Danuiel Clark suffered a severe spinal injury in a motor accident in 1991, leaving him confined to a wheelchair with no use of his body from the neck down. He suffers from constant pain, muscle spasms and side effects from highly addictive prescription drugs.

He is currently in Mount Eden prison after being sentenced to three weeks in prison after refusing to pay a fine or some sort of periodic detention following his conviction for cultivation of cannabis.

Danuiel uses cannabis as a pain killer and to combat the negative side effects of his prescription drugs that he must take every day.

The Ministry of Health has limited powers to approve cannabis for medicinal use and for experiments.

In 1994 Danuiel applied to the then Minister of Health Jenny Shipley, requesting permission to grow small amounts of cannabis, under supervision, for medicinal purposes. Alternately he requested that he be prescribed the drug by the state from police seizures. Delegated authority for this area led with Associate Minister, Maurice Williamson.

His application was accompanied by a supporting letter from his spinal specialist Dr O.R. Nicholson who has over 40 years experience in dealing with spinal patients and a letter from a general practitioner Dr John Lusk.

In Dr Lusk’s letter, released under the Official Information Act, he noted that Danuiel’s quality of life had been “severely compromised” by his injury and subsequent complications and that “all efforts to treat [his] condition with conventional medication have not only been unsuccessful, but have also been plagued by totally unacceptable side effects”.

He noted that cannabis use had “a dramatic effect on all of his symptoms. It proved invaluable in relieving his muscle spasms and relieved the pain which is a constant feature of his condition”.

“In Danuiel’s situation I believe that you will see that the benefits [of allowing him to use cannabis] far outweigh any possible disadvantages, both in a medical and a social sense,” he said.

However Ministers delegated the decision to the Manager of Therapeutics at the Ministry of Health who declined the application, saying that more information was needed on the medicinal benefits of cannabis use.

This was despite the Health Ministry advising that Danuiel satisfied all criteria to permit the application.

A number of states around the world permit the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Green Party MP Jeanette Fitzsimons has taken up the case as Danuiel is a constituent and she had been approached by Auckland Green candidate Nandor Tanczos who Danuiel had asked for help.

Fitzsimons said it was an indictment on the justice system that Danuiel was imprisoned for trying to relieve constant and unbearable pain. “Sending this man to jail is totally pointless,” she said. “Mr Clark is no threat to the community and he has been convicted for a totally victimless crime.”

Jeanette Fitzsimons said the situation was urgent as Danuiel had not been getting adequate nursing care in prison. “Danuiel says he was not taken to the toilet for four days and nights and was left in his own excrement,” she said. “When he fell out of bed it was hours before he was picked up.”

This incident allegedly occurred at Waikeria prison. Danuiel is now in Mount Eden and is getting 24 hour nursing care. Waikeria Prison are issuing a statement today.

“Sending this man to prison in a wheelchair for what he has done shows the sheer inhumanity of our justice and prison systems. Instead of the government’s touted harm minimisation approach to cannabis, this is an example of harm maximisation,” she said.

Ms Fitzsimons has offered to meet with Danuiel this week and if asked would take his case to the appropriate Minister. She said his conviction should be quashed.

“This man has suffered through losing the use of his body and now he is imprisoned for trying to make his life a little more bearable.

“It is inhumane, cruel and totally unnecessary,” she said.