The surgeon who removed the wrong kidney from a pensioner at a hospital in Wales said yesterday he was devastated by the error. The surgeon who removed the wrong kidney from a pensioner at a hospital in Wales said yesterday he was devastated by the error. John Roberts, consultant urologist at Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli, broke his silence yesterday, four days after the operation which left Graham Reeves, aged 69, in a coma.Mr Roberts, 58, who was already under investigation by the hospital after nurses expressed concern about urology work, said in a statement: "As the consultant ultimately responsible for the surgical team that undertook Mr Reeves' operation, I am devastated by what has happened. 15, 19 legalized for medical use.Defense lawyer Jeffrey Orchard said Wolfe intended to simply tell the congressman about her experience with marijuana, but started to feel tense. She lighted the marijuana cigarette only when she believed she was about to suffer an attack of shaking and muscle tightening caused by her condition, he said.A neurologist, Dr. Denis Petro, testified that marijuana works as a muscle relaxant, allowing people with multiple sclerosis to control their shaking, or spasticity. Other drugs produce severe side effects or are not as effective, he said.Prosecutor Alex Bourelly acknowledged "this is a unique case, and a unique defense," but said it was clear Wolfe was guilty of marijuana possession under the law in Washington.The judge said the "case comes down to whether there was a necessity for (Wolfe) to possess marijuana on that day in the District of Columbia.""There isn't any evidence she was suffering an attack of spasticity at the time she was in the congressman's office," Duncan-Peters concluded.Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system that afflicts more than 300,000 Americans.
A woman with multiple sclerosis has been convicted of drug possession for lighting a marijuana cigarette in a congressman's office when she felt the onset of an attack related to her illness. Judge Stephanie Duncan-Peters of the District of Columbia Superior Court ruled in a non-jury trial that the woman, Renee Emry Wolfe, 39, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, had not met the burden of proof necessary for a medical defense.She could have sentenced the mother of four to six months in jail and fined her dlrs 1,000, but instead ordered Wolfe to perform 50 hours of community service and pay court costs of dlrs 50.Marijuana is banned by the U.S. government, although voters in six states have approved laws allowing the drug to be used for medical purposes.Nearly 70 percent of voters in Washington, D.C., voted last year to allow the medical use of marijuana, but Congress blocked the measure from becoming law.Wolfe went to Rep Bill McCollum's office on Sept. A woman with multiple sclerosis has been convicted of drug possession for lighting a marijuana cigarette in a congressman's office when she felt the onset of an attack related to her illness. "This is what they would not agree to in Cartagena and it really is a major shift It is a new principle in international trade.".
The first was the issue of whether the protocol should be subordinate to the WTO when disputes arise. WTO rules and disputes procedures would make it much harder for a state to ban GM grain, say, merely as a precaution - scientific proof would be needed of definite harm to people or the environment.The second point was on the nature of the "precautionary principle" itself and how it should be defined.Mr Meacher said he felt that agreement might not immediately be possible and he was sure there would be "some linkage" between the protocol and the WTO.But the American concession was "a key crack in the door", he said. The Montreal negotiations, which have been going on all week, were due to finish in the early hours of this morning and last night Britain's Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, who was taking part in the talks, said that the American concession made him "cautiously optimistic" that an outline treaty would be signed today, even if some important matters were put off for later discussion."The American concession of the principle that states have a right to refuse entry to GM products if they feel there is a risk attached to them is an enormous step forward," Mr Meacher said.Britain and the EU are strongly in favour of the treaty, known as the Biosafety Protocol, which is being negotiated under the auspices of the Convention on Biodiversity, signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.America has hitherto been backed in its hard-line opposition by a group of big grain-growing nations collectively known as the Miami Group - Canada, Australia, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.Two outstanding sticking points remained in the talks last night. MORE THAN 150 countries were edging their way to a global treaty on genetically modified crops and foods in Montreal late last night after the United States, which blocked an earlier attempt to draw up a pact, made a key concession. The US has agreed that importing countries can be given information about GM products such as soya or maize and refuse them entry if, on the basis of that information, they think any sort of risk is attached.Previously, the US has rejected such actions on the grounds that they would be in restraint of free trade, and last year it used this objection to scupper the first attempt to agree a world GM treaty at Cartagena, Colombia.But the US government's previous hard-line stance in favour of genetically engineered agriculture has had to soften since then in the face of a year of mounting international protest, culminating in the mass demonstrations last November at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).Hopes have been high that this time agreement would be reached.