Pubdate: Sat, 21 May 2011
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard (CN ON)
Copyright: 2011 Sun Media
Contact: http://www.thewhig.com/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx
Website: http://www.thewhig.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/224
Author: Elliot Ferguson

COMPASSION CLUB

For Matt Thornton, cannabis helps him live.

Without it, he would be bedridden with Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia 
and autism.

For Dave Hudson, who suffers severe migraines several times a month 
and last for days at a time, cannabis saved his life.

"I can say without fail that if I did not have access to cannabis I 
wouldn't be here. I would have killed myself years ago," Hudson says. 
"It's a harsh reality to look at."

He can't work regularly, and at times can barely look after his three boys.

"The pain is so intense, the only thing that gives me relief is illegal."

The legality of medicinal cannabis is again in a grey area after an 
Ontario Superior Court decision that ruled Health Canada's medical 
marijuana program is unconstitutional and denies legal access to sick 
people who need the drug.

The federal government has about 50 days left to appeal that decision 
but in the meantime medical marijuana proponents at the Kingston 
Compassion Club Society, including Thornton and Hudson, have set up 
an office to provide high-quality marijuana to patients who qualify to use it.

The society is a members-only facility, and membership is only 
available to people registered with Health Canada's Medical Marijuana 
Access Regulations (MMAR) or who have been referred by a physician.

According to Health Canada, people can obtain MMAR status if they 
suffer severe pain from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or 
disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS infection, severe forms of arthritis or epilepsy.

About 10,000 people across Canada are part of the MMAR program, 
including about 1,000 registered growers.

Similar programs operate in California and Arizona.

The compassion club provides high-quality marijuana and offers 
patients instruction and counselling on its use for medicinal purposes.

The club gets its cannabis from growers licensed under the MMAR. The 
drugs are tested to determine their exact chemical makeup and 
different strains are used to treat different illnesses.

The growers are confident enough to promise the club that the 
chemical makeup of each plant will be consistent.

"We have possibly the best cultivators in the country working for us. 
We are raising the bar for compassion clubs across the country," Thornton says.

"We're not just a storefront opening up and selling pot to people," he says.

"We're actually doing research, we're doing science, we're providing 
much more than dry cannabis."

Since opening last week, the Kingston club has registered more than 
300 patients and Thornton says he expects more than 2,000 people to 
be registered once the club is fully up and running.

Last month's court case centred around a man who had to go through 17 
doctors before he found one willing to recommend marijuana.

Many doctors in Canada are hesitant to recommend cannabis because of 
the liabilities that go along with directing patients to find 
marijuana on the street.

Doctors in Kingston willing to recommend patients to the club must 
fill out a three-page referral form and the information is confirmed 
over the phone to prevent fraud.

"This doesn't help a 55-year-old woman with MS, who lives in the 
suburbs and hasn't even come close to seeing a joint or marijuana in 
any shape or form," Hudson says.

"What is she supposed to do? Go an ask teenagers?"

The compassion club is located on the top floor of the Princess 
Street Medical Arts Building.

Being in a medical building helps add legitimacy to medical cannabis, 
says Thornton, adding it has also prompted more discussion about the 
drug's use as medicine.

Hudson says there have been 5,000 studies on marijuana and he says 
the majority show a benefit for severely ill patients.

"I don't think there is anyone who hasn't been touched by cancer," Hudson says.

"If someone can't eat and nothing is working for them, there's going 
to be someone who says 'Hey, have you ever tried cannabis, because it 
gives you the munchies,' " he adds.

While how they use the cannabis is up to the patient, the compassion 
club is trying to promote a non-smoking policy, where patients use 
vaporizers to inhale fumes from heated marijuana, or eat the plant in 
baked goods.

The club directors -- half of whom are part of the MMAR program -- 
eventually want to expand into cannabis science, and one of the first 
things they want to do is provide data to researchers so they can 
examine the effect taking the plant has on other prescriptions.

The club is partnered with the Canadian Institute of Health 
Researchers, the International Cannabinoid Research Society and the 
International Association for Cannabis as Medicine.

It is planned that the club will be able to do its own testing with 
the future addition of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry equipment.

While the club's staff has more than 100 years of combined experience 
with cannabis, it relies on a panel of advisers to doctors and 
researchers to provide formal medical advice.

Kingston police have said they are aware of the compassion club and 
say they don't have any big concerns about it opening.

Thornton did say the one thing police warned them about was security.

Preventing robbery or theft is a priority. The club is locked all the 
times, with patients being let in by appointment only and the supply 
of cannabis is stored in a safe.

The compassion club has committed to donate 75% of any profit to 
local charities including Martha's Table and HIV/AIDS Regional 
Services and other groups.

All that goodwill, however, may be for naught should the government 
decide to appeal last month's court decision or abolish the MMAR 
program altogether, which Thornton says loses money each year.

"Trust the Canadian government to lose money selling pot," he says.

A change in the law and being shut down are threats compassion club 
members are well aware of and it's a constant source of frustration.

"I can go to the liquor store a fill up a big shopping cart of booze 
and take that home, nobody cares, nobody's checking. I don't have to 
get permission from the government to do that," Hudson says.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart