Pubdate: Tue, 26 Feb 2013
Source: Peace Arch News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Peace Arch News
Contact:  http://www.peacearchnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1333
Author: Sarah Massah

RALLY TARGETS PRICE BUMP

Medical-Pot Advocates Protest Proposed Changes

Nearly a dozen medical marijuana advocates took to the streets 
outside South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale MP Russ Hiebert's 
constituency office Thursday morning.

BC Cannabis Partners Campaign members David Hutchinson and Joy Davies 
were among the participants who braved the rain, bearing signs 
protesting the federal government's new medicinal pot system, which 
they said would restrict availability to users and raise prices.

Under the new system - which the federal government hopes to fully 
implement by March 31, 2014 - the government will no longer produce 
and distribute medicinal marijuana or allow production to take place 
in homes, "opening up the market to companies which meet strict 
security requirements," a release states.

However, Davies argued, by allowing the private sector to control the 
medicinal marijuana market, prices will rise.

Currently, medicinal marijuana costs about $5 per gram. Under the 
proposed changes the price could rise to about $8.80 a gram.

"We need to draw the attention to this and get changes made. The new 
regulations are hurting us more than the old ones were," Davies said.

The 64-year-old Semiahmoo Peninsula resident, who began using 
medicinal marijuana a decade ago following a car accident that left 
her with chronic fibromyalgia, said that without affordable access to 
the medication, many users will end up in more pain or even dead.

"There are many other models that will work better. All we want is 
our dignity. As citizens and sick people, we just want to be able to 
afford the medication that works for us," she said.

Hutchinson, who lives in South Surrey, echoed Davies about the 
importance of access to medicinal marijuana.

Protesting on behalf of his 19-year-old daughter Beth, who was 
diagnosed with a glioma - a type of brain tumour - when she was 16, 
Hutchinson said the cost of the medicinal marijuana Beth needs will 
skyrocket if the new system goes into play.

"Right now, it costs a couple hundred dollars a month, but under the 
new proposal it would cost $3,100 a month. That's a lot of money. It 
would cost $36,000 a year just for the medicine," he said.

BC Cannabis Partners Campaign members plan to encourage the creation 
of a committee in order to define perimeters for a pilot project on 
medicinal marijuana, bringing together federal and provincial 
goverment - much like Insite, Davies noted.

"They set a precedent of a bilateral pilot project between the two 
levels of government. The doors have been opened," Davies said. "We 
just want a patients-first program."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom