A HUSBAND who grows cannabis to treat his sick wife is waiting to hear whether he will be prosecuted for drug dealing following a police raid on his home. Sixty-year-old Alan Blythe opened his door on Friday morning to find six uniformed police officers on the step with a warrant to search his home. The police were acting on a tipoff that Mr Blythe was growing cannabis at his bungalow in Badger Close, Palacefields, but the warrant was unnecessary as the taxi driver immediately handed over his stash of cannabis plants. The raid was the fourth time in a decade that Mr Blythe has been arrested for growing the drug which he says is the only thing to provide relief from terrible symptoms from the multiple sclerosis his wife, Judith, 57, has suffered for more than 20 years. He said: 'The police were very decent about everything. I saw them on the step and immediately handed over the plants and they arrested me and took me down the station. 'Judith suffers from a terrible dizziness and disorientation but thanks to cannabis, she hasn't had an attack in 13 years. It is the only thing that provides her with any relief and she takes it every day. 'I think it is ridiculous that I can be arrested for doing something out of love to help my wife. I feel we are being harassed and I wish they would just leave us alone to get on with our lives. 'Whatever happens, I will carry on growing cannabis because it helps Judith and that is far more important than the law.' In 1998 Mr Blythe was cleared of cultivating cannabis with intent to supply by a jury at Warrington Crown Court. Afterwards he said he would be prepared to go to prison rather than watch his wife suffer. He used a rare defence of 'duress of circumstances' because he feared that without cannabis the symptoms of her dis-ease would drive his wife to suicide. Now Mr Blythe has been ordered to attend Runcorn Police Station on October 31 to discover whether he will be prosecuted for the latest offence. He said: 'It is a crazy situation. Whatever happens I will continue to grow cannabis and the only way the police will stop me is if I am locked up.' | 
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