A tetraplegic man who has appeared in court five times for smoking cannabis to relieve his pain, has at last been prescribed a medical form of the drug.

Daniel Groves, 33, a former carpenter who was paralysised when he fell asleep at the wheel of his car in December 1992, has found cannabis to be more effective than any of the assortment of pain relieving drugs he has been prescribed.

Yet, the wheelchair user who was paralysed from the neck down, has received four two year suspended sentences for possession of cannabis since his sister first brought him some hash cookies on his 26th birthday.

Now Mr Groves, who lives in Ashington Gardens, Peacehaven, has been prescribed Nabilone, a chemical substitute for cannabis, which he has found highly effective in reducing the spasms and other pain he suffers. However, just last week he had to make his fifth court appearance for possession of cannabis, after being caught smoking a joint in his garden in the summer. Now he is worried that he could be prosecuted for using the Nabilone.

Mr Groves said: "The last time I was taken to court the clerk threw out my case and said it was not in the public interest, but I now I am worried that I could be prosecuted for using Nabilone. I have read that it is not simply a synthetic substitute but that it has got cannabis in it. I phoned the police and they seemed to think that I could be arrested for having it.

"I am so fed up of the police coming to my house and having to go to court. It is such a waste of their time, my time and my carers' time and it is also a waste of tax payers money. I always end up with a suspended sentence which is just a joke. They are not going to send someone like me, who needs 24 hour care, to prison."

Mr Groves was prescribed the Nabilone at the Hove Polyclinic two months ago. He has now been told that his GP cannot afford to prescribe it to him.

"What I can't understand is why it has taken them so long to prescribe me the Nabilone. I don't expect heroin users have to wait eight years to get methadone."

Mr Groves compared the pain he suffers to toothache from the nerves at the back of his neck which shoot over his whole body. Since using the cannabis he has regained some movement in his arms and hands, which he puts down to his use of the banned drug.

He said: "When I take cannabis I am not drugged up like someone who does not suffer the pain that I do would be. I am not stoned or monged out.

"Why do they have to manufacture something that does exactly the same thing that costs a lot more to stop you being a criminal? If Nabilone mimics cannabis then why not just give cannabis? It's a pharmacetical monopolisation of a product the Government can't tax."

A Sussex police spokesman explained that Mr Groves would not be at risk of arrest unless he was in possession of a controlled drug.

A spokesman for East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority said: "Nabilone is a chemical substitute for cannabis. It is not a plant extract as cannabis is. The original properties of the plant have been recreated as a pain relief drug.

"It is not a controlled drug and it has been being prescribed for between 20 and 30 years. It tends to be prescribed by hospitals. There is nothing wrong or funny about it at all. It is based on what people have seen in the natural world."

Dr Martin Heath, a GP in Lewes and a spokesman for the British Medical Association, explained that Nabilone was licenced to be used to help cancer patients who had had chemotherapy.

But he said that doctors were reluctant to prescribe it because it is not licenced to be used to treat other medical conditions.

The restrictions on Nabilone's use are largely because of the side effects it causes. These include: mental confusion, vertigo, drowsiness, ataxia, sleep problems, disphoria, low blood pressure, hallucination and psychosis.

Dr Heath said: "Doctors who prescribe Nabilone without a licence are liable if a patient suffers any of these side effects. It is sometimes used to treat spasms in Multiple Sclerosis and I can imagine that it could be used to treat spasms with other conditions."

Dr Heath said that similarly cannabis had "definite theraputic benefits but also bad side effects". He said: "A lot of research is being done at the moment into the medical use of cannabis. But there are a large number of drugs which have been shown to have benefits but which also have bad side effects.

"If a drug helps 19 out of 20 people but one gets severe side effects the manufacturer might not think it is worth producing it. It is a commercial decision."