Terminally ill pensioner arrested for growing cannabis plants in his garage

A terminally ill pensioner has been arrested for growing cannabis plants at his home.

Philip Antony Bevington, who goes by Tony, began growing the plants for medical reasons, when he was diagnosed with stage three kidney failure two years ago, an incurable and terminal condition.

Having tried legally available cannabis oil and found them not to work, Tony decided to grow his own plants and extract the CBD and THC compounds from the oils himself.

The 80-year-old believes that these could prolong his life by ten years.

But, following a visit in January by Devon and Cornwall Police, Tony's plants have all been confiscated.

The public-school educated pensioner used to smoke cannabis when he was younger and believes it relieves pain and balances out his body.

Tony, who lives in Camborne, now believes that the drug should be legalised, given there are 1.5m active users of medical cannabis across the UK.

Faced with the possibility of of dialysis for the rest of his life, Tony believes that growing cannabis is an obvious choice, even though it is against the law.

But Tony now faces prison if he is found to grow more cannabis, having been visited by the police twice.

Whilst Devon and Cornwall Police cautioned Tony in November 2019, when they returned in January, Tony says they were "quite aggressive and told me that if they had to be called out to my house again they'd come at 3am and smash my door down."

For now, the Camborne pensioner will rely on friends who grow cannabis, but he hopes for a change in the law in his lifetime.

Tony worked as a farmer for twenty years, but left England for Botswana after his first wife died, leaving him and two children. He then moved to Papua New Guinea where he worked as a VSO volunteer on government-funded projects, building farms for local communities. There, he met his second wife and had two children who now live with him in Camborne.

It was two years ago that Tony was diagnosed and begun his quest for pain relief.

Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed that they had visited Tony Bevington's house twice since November 2019.