Pubdate: Sun, 06 Apr 2014
Source: Rocky Mountain Goat News, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 The Rocky Mountain Goat
Contact:  http://www.therockymountaingoat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5461
Author: Korie Marshall

THE FACE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A federal court injunction granted last week may give medical
marijuana patients a reprieve, but it is a little close to the wire.
Some locals are still considering which side of the
"health-or-freedom" line they will be on if the new regulations hold
up.

The new federal regulations for marijuana for medical purposes (MMPR)
came into effect last year, but were running concurrently with the old
Medical Marihuana Access Regulations (MMAR), set to expire March 31st,
2014. The old program allowed patients to grow their own marijuana or
have someone grow it for them, but these grow ops were not regulated,
and the government and Health Canada claim the system was open to
serious abuse.

The new MMPR program requires patients purchase their marijuana from
federally-licensed, commercial grow ops. BC lawyer John Conroy has
challenged the new program saying it is a violation of the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Conroy represents a group of medical
marijuana users, and he says under section seven of the Charter
everyone who is medically approved to use cannabis has a right to
reasonable access to it as a medicine for their health. Conroy and his
clients claim the new MMPR will cause patients who cannot afford black
market or licensed producer prices to have to choose between their
liberty (being arrested and charged with production of marijuana) and
their health (accessing the medicine that works best for their health).

At least one local patient in the Robson Valley area agrees, and says
there are other locals who are in the same situation.

Ed (not his real name) doesn't want to be identified, because he is
still considering whether he'll go "underground" with his personal
grow op. He says he has been growing legal cannabis for himself for
years to treat his post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms from
being in the war. Cannabis also helps him relieve stress which
aggravates another medical condition, but his stress has worsened in
the last month, because of the looming changes to the medical
marijuana system.

"Like many patients, I have a spotless criminal record. I've never
been arrested for anything in my life," says Ed, but after April 1st,
he may run the risk of being charged. And among other things, a drug
charge would prevent him from visiting family in another country.

Ed says he knows other patients in the area who use cannabis for
cancer, PTSD and other medical conditions. "Without exception, they
are without a criminal record, can't afford the increase (in the cost
of their medication), and have money and time invested in a particular
strain for their particular need."

"I know what I'm growing - a specific variety for stress disorders,
and I know what it cost me, after investing thousands to comply with
the government regulations - wiring, ventilation and security," says
Ed.

And he says other local patients are also intimidated by the current
federal government.

In early March, Ed was happy to read an article by the Canadian Press
that said many police forces in BC don't plan to crack down on
patients growing marijuana for their own personal use once the laws
changed, although the RCMP has said it will continue to enforce
federal drug laws.

But then he read a statement from Health Canada on March 17, saying
Health Canada "does not endorse the use of marihuana" and will be
requiring patients under the old program to destroy any remaining
marijuana they have. If patients don't confirm to Health Canada the
drug has been destroyed, Health Canada says it will "notify law
enforcement."

Ed says he thinks Health Canada releasing medical information to the
police is an infringement on his privacy, a violation of
patient-doctor confidentiality. But on top of that, they are expecting
him to destroy any of his remaining medicine, and wait until one of
the newly licensed producers can send him his prescription - and he
won't know what strain it is, or what the THC content level is, and
based on his calculations, he'll have to pay 6-10 times what he spends
on it now.

Dana Larsen, society manager and director of the Medical Cannabis
Dispensary in Vancouver and advocate for legalizing marijuana, says
Health Canada is not supposed to give that information out, "it is
private, medical information, really not any of the RCMP's business."
He says some patients might have let the RCMP know they were growing
legally, and there may be some that were under investigation. In that
case, the RCMP could have checked with Health Canada to see if someone
has a license to grow, but Health Canada cannot just hand over a list.

Larsen says the recent announcement from Health Canada saying patients
not only have to disassemble their grow op, but have to destroy their
medicine and buy new, is punitive.

"There may be problems around grow ops; I think those could have been
resolved differently. But to also make you throw away what you've
grown and buy more? What is the point of that? That is not protecting
anybody's safety, it's already been grown. That is just punitive and
harsh."

It has created an uproar, Larsen says, because some patients had been
planning to harvest enough medicine by the March 31 deadline to last
them for a while. And he is concerned the new licensed operations
won't have enough cannabis ready for several months if all the
patients comply with the new legislation.

By March 21, Ed was pretty sure he was going to have to risk his
personal freedom and try to grow his medicine underground, but hearing
the injunction was granted gave him some hope. A federal court judge
granted Conroy and his clients the injunction on Friday. That means
roughly 40,000 Canadians will be allowed to continue to grow and use
their own cannabis until the constitutional challenge can be heard in
court.

Larsen says the main reasons people want to grow their cannabis at
home are price and accessibility. He says buying it from these
licensed companies will be at street prices, $5-10 per gram. "And for
those who need a lot of this medicine, that is not affordable, and
they are going to have to make difficult choices."

He says the best way to stop people from growing it at home is for the
government to offer cheap, high quality medicine.

"If the government would offer it for 50 cents a gram, people wouldn't
bother growing it for themselves."

Dori Dempster, director and store administrator for the Cannabis
Dispensary and also a medical marijuana patient, thinks doctors are
going to be more reluctant to get their patients set up with the new
program, "which seems to have more issues, and it certainly doesn't
address the patient's needs." She says her doctor was happy to see she
was trying to retain her rights under the old MMAR system.

The Goat asked Northern Health if it has a policy regarding medical
marijuana, and whether patients under the old program will have
problems getting new prescriptions from their doctors under the new
program. Northern Health would only say that smoking medical marijuana
on Northern Health property would fall under smoking regulations, and
referred our questions about the program to the provincial Ministry of
Health.

Trish Rorison, Senior Public Affairs Officer for the Ministry of
Health referred us to Health Canada, but said the courts have
determined that Canadians have a constitutional right to cannabis for
therapeutic purposes. She says that the BC Government does not manage
access or distribution of this product; it is managed by the federal
government.

Sara Lauer, Media Relations Officer for Health Canada, said new
licensed producers had registered only 1,800 clients by the end of
February, but Heath Canada has now received more than 450 applications
from across the country to be licensed producers. One of them,
CanniMed, told us they will have the capacity to serve 10,000 new
patients on April 1, with a facility expansion underway that will
allow them to serve 25,000 patients by June. CanniMed's website
currently advertises prices between $4.88 and $13.50 per gram. A list
of licensed producers under the new MMPR can be found on Health
Canada's website: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/marihuana/info/list-eng.php 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D