Veteran Eastenders actor Pam St Clements has admitted she uses cannabis every day and called for the drug to be legalised in the UK.
The 75-year-old, who played Pat Butcher on the soap opera for 26 years, suffers from polymyalgia rheumatic, a form of arthiritis which causes pain, stiffness and inflammation in the muscles around the shoulders, neck and hips.
But after her appearance on ITV’s Gone To Pot: An American Road Trip, St Clement “swears the drug’s ‘amazing properties’ have zapped her arthritis,” says The Sun.
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Viewers in the UK “could not get enough of the scenes where St Clement smokes marijuana with nuns and takes a hit on a bong,” says The Independent.
St Clement “has now heaped praise on cannabis, which was reclassified from a class C to B drug in 2008, and said products containing cannabidiol (CBD) had revolutionised her life,” adds the paper.
She told the Sunday Mirror: “Taking this oil has changed my life. I am no longer in pain.”
“My joints are no longer stiff, I sleep better, almost jump out of bed and walk longer distances – all things I could never have dreamed six weeks ago.”
“Gone To Pot changed my life because when I went to America to find out about how cannabis has been legalised in certain states, I also discovered CBD. And I have to say that it’s absolutely wonderful.
“I didn’t realise cannabis was such a complex plant with these properties which you can get medical help from.”
St Clement appeared on the show with fellow celebrities John Fashanu, Christopher Biggins, Bobby George and Linda Robson.
The former Eastenders star “was seen taking a deep drag on a marijuana bong at a ‘Puff, Pass and Paint’ art class – and sharing a joint with Californian nuns who grow cannabis for medicinal purposes,” adds the Mirror.
She told the paper: “A few minutes after I took my first puff with the nuns I had this lovely relaxed feeling and I was in hysterics after smoking the bong at the art class.”
St Clement also backed calls for the legalisation of medicinal marijuana saying: “Oxford University are doing research into its medicinal properties and we should hurry up with more research. Then we can sling it at the politicians to see if they will legalise it.”