Caren Ashford, a seventy-year-old glass artist suffers from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a nervous system disorder that medical science struggles to treat. Four years ago the condition meant she was wheelchair bound, suffering constant, intense pain, experiencing bowel and bladder control issues and chronic fatigue. 

Her body doesn't cope well with opiates, so her pain treatment options were both limited and complex. She was filling 12 prescriptions per month for pharmaceuticals which were having little or no impact. 

Four years ago, after researching the impact of CBD on some CRPS cases and discussing the potential treatment with her doctor, she started a regime of two drops of CBD oil per day, moving up to 0.5 ml each day.  

She says she started noticing a difference in her health after around six weeks of the treatment. In the four years since, her quality of life has been transformed.  Caren has dropped most of her prescriptions, and while her pain hasn’t disappeared, she finally feels in control of it. Her chronic fatigue has gone, and although she still needs her wheelchair to get around outside, she can walk around her house unaided. Best of all, she has been able to resume her work as a glass artist from her home studio and can walk around her house unaided. She says her mental health has also improved significantly due to much reduced anxiety levels. 

“As far as I’m concerned it’s a miracle drug. It’s low impact. It doesn't get you high - I absolutely hate that feeling. It allows you to find your own body’s balance,” she says. 

Caren thinks CBD should be explored by far more New Zealanders as a treatment option for a range of issues, but cites cost as a major barrier. She appeared on One News late last year to advocate for greater availability of lower cost CBD.  

“I’m spending $120 per month on Medleaf CBD oil and $165 each two months for Tilray 10/10 CBD/THC. For me I’m lucky I can afford that. But not everyone can. Currently I’m paying from my retirement savings, but they’re limited." 

Caren says she has spoken to a number of patients who have been prescribed CBD by their GPs but have been unable to afford to get their prescription filled. These people are forced to turn to the legion of “green faeries'' who supply New Zealanders with medicinal cannabis products via a thriving black market for around half the price of what Caren currently pays. But she says she can’t use the blackmarket product because it is of inconsistent strength and potentially unsafe because it's completely untested. 

“I tried CBD oil from a green faerie once but I couldn’t get the dosage right because it’s untested so they can’t tell you the concentration. For someone who is treating a serious condition like me, it’s just not a viable alternative,” she says 

Green faeries are unable to have their product tested by commercial laboratories, because any laboratory would be legally obliged to report the presence of controlled drugs to police.  

Despite the drawbacks of black market products, green faeries continue to find a growing market as the benefits of CBD become more widely known. Caren blames the booming illegal market on government regulations that make CBD too expensive at pharmacies for many patients. 

“I know a lot of the green fairies are very good people and they do it to help people, and good on them. But what they do is illegal.  All because we have over zealous regulations.”

“I know it’s not the motivation of the people in charge of the system, but their rules make CBD oil so expensive that it’s effectively inaccessible to thousands of people whose quality of life could be improved so easily,” she says