Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2002
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.fyicalgary.com/calsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Licia Corbella, Calgary Sun

USING MARIJUANA TO ALLEVIATE PAIN HARDLY CRIMINAL

Henry George Adams is an unlikely "criminal."

He is 86 years old, has never been in jail, has always paid his taxes on 
time and has lived his "life for the Lord."

Indeed, the thick, leather-bound Bible sitting on his daughter's kitchen 
table in southeast Calgary is so worn, anyone looking at it would assume 
he'd had it his entire life.

"Oh no," he says with a chuckle. "This Bible is not even two years old. 
It's just that there's no better way we can spend our time than reading 
God's word."

Just four months ago, however, Adams was so sick and so frail he could 
barely read his precious Bible. Fact is, he could barely eat or sleep, so 
relentless was his pain from the prostate cancer that has now spread into 
his bones -- including his spine.

Luckily for him, his daughter Eunice Cluff, 50, had seen the remarkable 
effect marijuana products had made in the life of her husband Grant Cluff, 
a former high school teacher who has multiple sclerosis. She decided to 
pull her father out of the nursing home he was in, take him off of almost 
20 medications and start feeding him with muffins and food containing 
cannabis butter and hashish.

"It really is remarkable how much better I feel," says the former farm 
publication salesman.

While confined to a wheelchair just a few months ago and "just a bag of 
bones," Adams has gained 25 lb. and, the other day, walked the entire 
length of Marlborough Mall.

It may not sound like much, but for Adams -- who also lost both his legs at 
the age of 18 in a railway accident and suffers from Parkinson's disease -- 
it is miraculous.

"I was also having terrible spasms in both of my stumps, but those have 
gone too," he exclaims.

"I really believe God gave us marijuana as a remarkable medicine."

Eunice laughs at the irony of it all. Just one year ago, she wasn't just a 
skeptic about the benefits of marijuana, she was vehemently opposed to the 
stuff.

"I thought only low-lifes did marijuana," she says, as two of her 
grandchildren -- Zoe, 3, and Noah, 4 -- play and laugh in the living room.

Now, she's not only a believer, she's become a marijuana minstrel, turning 
a small bedroom in her apartment into the unofficial Compassion Club of 
Calgary -- where sick people can come to find out information about 
marijuana and other "herbs."

Sitting in that room is Grant Krieger, Calgary's foremost cannabis crusader 
- -- who, once again, despite being granted an exemption from the country's 
archaic marijuana laws, must appear in court today to answer to charges of 
possession of marijuana.

His recognizance order -- which is so rife with factual errors, you have to 
wonder if the person who wrote it knows how to spell and read a calendar -- 
states Krieger will be in breach of the conditions of his $300 bail if he 
possesses "marihuana"(sic.).

"I need my medicine to walk and they say it's against the law even though a 
jury of 12 at the Court of Queen's Bench says I can legally possess and 
grow marijuana," says Krieger.

"When will it end?" asks Krieger, who like Cluff was once confined to a 
wheelchair from MS but now scoots around the city in borrowed cars 
delivering pot -- at no profit and often at a loss -- to other ill people.

Currently, one of his "legitimate" suppliers, Randy Newsham, is 
incarcerated in the Calgary Remand Centre, charged with cultivation and 
possession for the purposes of trafficking of marijuana.

On noon Saturday, the Grant W. Krieger Cannabis Research Foundation is 
holding a protest outside the jail to protest Newsham's arrest.

"He was under a contractual agreement with me to grow marijuana," says Krieger.

As for Adams, yesterday he had a hearty wrestle on the floor with his 
great-grandson Noah.

"I used to think doing marijuana for any reason was not just criminal but a 
sin," says Adams with his trademark glowing smile. "Now, while it may be a 
criminal act, I just KNOW in my heart it's not a sin."

Amen, brother.
- ---
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