Clare Hodges

Who is Clare Hodges?

Clare Hodges, also known as Elizabeth Brice, was an English activist who advanced the medical understanding of and campaigned for the widespread benefit of cannabis as a therapeutic medicine in the United Kingdom. Clare Hodges is the pseudonym that Elizabeth Brice used, Clare being her middle name and Hodges her mother's maiden name.

She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 26 but it was nearly 10 years before she tried cannabis to alleviate the symptoms. Hodges found that cannabis greatly alleviated her condition. It was this that motivated her to become an avid campaigner.

Consequently Hodges founded the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics in 1992 with two other patients. The ACT worked to provide advice and assistance to other MS suffers and individuals with other medical conditions which might benefit from the use of cannabis.

Hodges took the matter to the House of Lords in 1998 where she spoke about the benefits she had found from the therapeutic use of this illicit drug. She stated "Cannabis helps my body relax. I function and move much easier. The physical effects are very clear. It is not just a vague feeling of well-being".