Pubdate: Mon, 17 Oct 2016
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Doug Schmidt
Page: A1

U.S. BOUND? LEAVE YOUR POT AT HOME

Dangling uselessly at her side, Jan Rieveley's right arm has become a
"paper weight."

A bad fall in a dark cave in Ohio four years ago tore nerves
previously made weaker from cancer-radiation treatment. "It's pain
24/7," says the 61-year-old owner of a small Riverside business.

Rieveley said her previous opiate "cocktail" of Percocets and other
pain medications permitted her to work about two hours a week.
Rieveley hated what those opioids were doing to her. So, six months
ago, her doctor prescribed pot, and it worked wonderfully. Her life on
pot has improved to the point she's working a couple of days a week.
"I like control in my life," Rieveley said of her decision to avoid
the powerful opiates of the pharmaceutical companies.

But now there's another problem. She can't visit family in the United
States.

Canadian patients making the switch from highly addictive opioids to
medical marijuana to cope with chronic pain and other ailments have
been warned it's against the law to take that relief across the border.

She and her husband "love travelling in Michigan," and they have
family in Florida. "As long as you have a legal prescription, I don't
see how anyone should not be able to travel," said Rieveley.

She recently went on a seven hour Michigan trip but ended up "feeling
pretty miserable." The effects of her cannabis-derived medication
usually last four to five hours, but Rieveley said she would never
risk getting a permanent ban on visiting the U.S. by sneaking it in.

A growing number of North American communities, states and provinces
are declaring public-health emergencies as addiction and misuse rates
soar for prescription painkiller opioids - everything from OxyContin
pills to fentanyl patches.

You'll never see Rieveley stoned or high because the medical marijuana
she uses to get through the day has next to no tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), the psychoactive ingredient in pot. Hers is high in cannabidiol
(CBD), a non-psychoactive cannabis compound effective in chronic pain
management.

"If someone wanted to get stoned, they're not going to get stoned on
mine," said the mother of two adult children. "There's nothing
euphoric - for me, cannabis shuts down the pain centre (in the brain)."

The problem for pot-prescribed patients who would like to travel to
the U.S. is that, "in the eyes of the law, cannabis is cannabis, it's
all the same," said Dr. Christopher Blue, a Windsor family physician
who specializes in pain management.

"I have patients who say they're going to Florida for three or four
months, and I say, 'Great ... but leave your cannabis at home,' " he
said. Blue's patients must sign consent forms when prescribed
marijuana, including agreeing not to try and sneak it across the border.

"Unfortunately, you're stuck," said Blue, whose medical marijuana
patients - Rieveley is not one - are prescribed pot to combat
everything from pain, depression and insomnia to anxiety and the
side-effects of cancer chemotherapy.

Vic Neufeld, president and CEO of Leamington-based Aphria, a licensed
producer of medical marijuana, said it's one thing to be caught at the
border without properly declared goods but pot is on a whole different
level of serious crime.

The Trudeau Liberals are now studying the eventual legalization of
recreational pot, but the United States lists marijuana as a Schedule
1 drug, in the same category as heroin. A Canadian caught with pot at
the border might find it difficult or impossible to ever be allowed
back into America again.

"That's not going to change - we see no movement towards tolerance at
the (American) federal level whatsoever," said Neufeld.

While some American officials are reluctant to speak on the issue
before seeing details of what Ottawa might propose, it appears
unlikely there will be any softening soon at the border for pot, even
if it's for medical purposes and even if it's the kind that won't ever
get the user stoned.

"It would still be illegal importation into the U.S. - there's no
likelihood our federal law … will change in the near-term," said
Robert Bonner, a former administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, who is also a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and
Border Protection. Bonner, currently senior principal of Sentinel
Strategy & Policy Consulting, spoke to the Star at last month's
U.S./Canada Border Conference in Detroit.

Conference delegates, including the current U.S. DEA administrator and
top security officials, heard it was "utter nonsense" to suggest
marijuana users were being targeted by the DEA. But in the latest
DEA/FBI war-on-drugs effort - a powerful cautionary video production
on opiate abuse called Chasing the Dragon - marijuana is described by
all the addicts portrayed as their gateway drug to the current
fentanyl epidemic sweeping North America.

Luc Portelance, a former president of the Canada Border Services
Agency, told the Star that marijuana legalization on this side of the
border is "not a show stopper," and that it could be treated by U.S.
border agents as guns are now handled at the Canadian border.

"It's just going to get worse with recreational - there's going to be
no leniency at all," said Aphria's Neufeld.

Windsor's Jon Liedtke was on the Transit Windsor tunnel bus with a
friend when U.S. customs officers lined up all the passengers on the
Detroit side and brought in a sniffer dog. The dog stopped at Liedtke
and his friend.

"I've got a dog too," the friend said helpfully.

"That's not a good response right now," the border agent replied,
according to Liedtke, who explained that he was registered to use
medical marijuana.

"He said, 'Did you bring any with you?' I said, 'No, I'm not an
idiot,' and he laughed and let us go," said Liedtke, adding there
should be a different set of rules for those prescribed marijuana for
medical use.

"We're going to see more (border) delays," predicts Liedtke, the owner
of Higher Limits, a cannabis lounge.

But he also believes that when, inevitably, a growing number of
Canadians start getting turned around at the border, the politicians
will get involved and a binational solution will be found.

But he thinks "we're 10 years out from carrying (pot) across the
border."
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MAP posted-by: Matt