Pubdate: Fri, 26 Apr 2002
Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Contact:  http://www.pqbnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361
Author: Tom MacDougall

POT COOKIES, POT BUTTER: LINGO OF COMPASSIONATE CANNABIS BUYERS CLUB

Mark Russell's stress level has risen significantly over the last few months.

That's almost ironic, given that he is the founder of the Coombs chapter of 
the Cannabis Buyers Club of Canada.

One of the conditions some of his customers use the marijuana they obtain 
through the club for is to relieve stress.

The former owner of The Hemp Store - Russell has given up the store in 
large part because of the demands of operating the cannabis club - knows he 
is operating outside the strict letter of the law with the club, which 
provides marijuana to those who can demonstrate chronic pain or 
debilitating illness, usually with a doctor's note or a prescription for 
other medication.

And given the fact Ted Smith, the founder of the original Cannabis Buyers 
Club in Victoria, has been visited by police three times in the past four 
months, Russell knows the risk for him is real. But it's one he's willing 
to take, he says, more than once if necessary.

That's because he wants to make sure the club keeps operating for the 100 
members currently signed up, make sure they have access to the drug they 
see as medicine.

"It's nice to be able to go to a place that's somewhat legitimate," says 
Nicky, one of the club's members.

She has fibromyalgia, among other disorders, and marijuana is one of the 
few drugs that provides relief, and with no side effects.

Not only does it reduce her pain, but it also controls her nausea and helps 
improve her appetite. Her doctor wrote her a prescription for the drug, to 
allow her to become a member of the club.

Her mother, an elderly woman who says she's allergic to the smoke from 
marijuana, supports her daughter, and will come and pick up a supply from 
the cannabis club when her daughter can't.

"They don't do it to get high, they do it for relief," she says.

Wendy is a grandmother drawing a disability pension. Like Nicky, she 
suffers from fibromyalgia. Before starting to use marijuana - she usually 
eats two 'pot cookies' a day, and have a couple of tokes - she says she was 
taking 11 Tylenol 3s with codeine a day, as well as anti-inflammatory 
drugs. She doesn't take any now.

While talking at the compassion club, she sips a cup of hot chocolate with 
a half-gram of pot butter mixed in. Before starting her drink "the 
tightness was like this," she says of the pain in her hands, making a tight 
fist. "Now it's loosening up."

Neither of them have applied for the federal licence that would allow them 
to use the drug legally, in part because the process would require them to 
open their homes to random searches, says Nicky.

Besides, the government has changed how it plans to dispense the marijuana 
it has grown for medical use.

Federal health minister Anne McLellan has indicated the medical marijuana 
must go through clinical trials before it will be released to the public. 
Russell says those seeking a permit to legally use marijuana for medical 
reasons are now being told they have to become part of the trial, and that 
means they might receive a placebo rather than the drug itself.

Even those who already have a licence find themselves in a bind. Without 
the government's medical marijuana supply, they have no legal way to obtain 
the drug, because it is still illegal to buy the substance from other 
people, and there is no legal supply of seed to grow your own.

Which is why Russell thinks he still has a role.

"If they're not going to give or distribute the marijuana to those people, 
then they should let us do it."
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MAP posted-by: Beth