Pubdate: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Author: Harold Levy, Staff Reporter WOMAN SAYS SHE MUST SEND MOTHER TO BUY POT Wants Ottawa To Offer Safe Marijuana Supply A woman with multiple sclerosis says she has resorted to asking her mother to help her buy marijuana off the street because Ottawa is not offering a safe, affordable supply of the drug. "I never dreamed that my mother would be running around to help me buy pot and risking arrest like a common criminal," said Alison Myrden, 36, of Burlington. Myrden got an exemption from Health Canada March 21 that allows her to grow a small quantity of marijuana for medicinal purposes, but says "that doesn't even begin to cover what I need." Myrden, who was diagnosed in 1992 with multiple sclerosis, requires the marijuana to alleviate the excruciating stabbing facial pains she experiences around the clock. She says she discovered the soothing quality of marijuana in 1997, when a friend who could not bear witnessing her pain "thrust a marijuana cigarette at me," and within 10 minutes she was pain-free for 21 hours. Myrden makes no secret of the fact she has to go to the illicit drug market to purchase marijuana - even though she is authorized by the federal government to use it. "At one point my mom and my boyfriend were taking me around to some pretty disreputable places to try and find marijuana for pain relief," Myrden said in a telephone interview. She says "a good Samaritan," who is risking arrest by helping her buy marijuana, is also assisting a multiple sclerosis patient who is severely disabled and cannot leave home to buy the drug. "I'm certainly proud of my daughter," Alison's mother, Joyce Myrden, said yesterday. "She has put up a phenomenal fight with what she has had to cope with. "It's just too bad that she and the others have been caught in a political football game. They are in a position where they have the legal right to the medication but are denied access to it." In July, 1999, Joyce Myrden wrote Health Minister Allan Rock that "when Alison relied on prescribed medications for her pain control she became very lethargic and almost comatose, (so that) I could not justify this as any kind of quality of life. "The marijuana allows her to lead a relatively normal life, so I took it upon myself to finance her purchasing what she required from 'the street.' " Last week, Jim Wakeford, a Toronto man with full-blown AIDS who was the first in Canada to be granted permission to smoke pot for medicinal purposes, went to court to seek a safe supply of marijuana. He also asked that his dealers be exempted from drug trafficking and possession laws. Mr. Justice Blenus Wright has not yet ruled on the request. Roslyn Tremblay, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said the government recognizes there is no legal supply of marijuana for medical purposes, and confirmed that 34 exemptions have been issued since June, 1999, under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Tremblay says the government is moving to support research into the medical use of marijuana and will be issuing a request for proposals. But for Myrden, change can't come soon enough. "I'm excited something is being done, and thankful for what I have received so far," she says. "But it's time for the government to find the courage and follow through so that there won't be any more unnecessary suffering." - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk