MEDICINAL POT LEGISLATION CALLED PUBLIC RELATIONS SCAM

Health Minister Looking For Pat On Back, Kitchener Woman Says

Canadians allowed to smoke marijuana to treat painful, sometimes fatal
illnesses will continue to break the law because federal legislative
changes designed to give them easier access to pot are "a massive public
relations scam," a Kitchener woman said yesterday.

Catherine Devries, 43, one of 200 Canadians allowed to smoke cannabis for
medical reasons, said this means she will continue to have packages of pot
mailed to her from Windsor or driven to her home by a medicinal-marijuana
user and grower in the Hamilton-Burlington area.

In April 2000, regional police seized a package of pot mailed to Devries
from B.C. When a judge ordered the dope returned a few weeks later, police
said Health Canada had not listed her exemption in police computer records.

Now, because they're so frustrated with the lack of workable regulations,
medicinal-marijuana users in Ontario have organized groups to grow and sell
a supply of pot despite the fact that to do so flouts existing laws and
regulations, Devries said.

She was commenting on changes to federal regulations scheduled to be in
place July 30 and recommended by federal Health Minister Allan Rock.
Changes are supposed to clear up confusion about exemptions, create a
reliable supply and make life easier for those with permission to smoke pot.

"We have looked at everything proposed by Rock and come to the conclusion
it's nothing but a massive public relations scam," said Devries, who
suffers spine and bowel conditions.

"Canadians have been told we're now getting our marijuana but that's
doubletalk. Rock is looking for a pat on the back for being compassionate
but is reluctant to do anything that will work."

Once regulations are in place, Canada will be the only country in the world
with a government-regulated system allowing use of medicinal marijuana.

Regulations are the government's response to a court ruling that Canada's
pot laws were unconstitutional because they failed to recognize marijuana
had medicinal uses and did nothing to provide a legal supply route.

According to media reports, changes to regulations mean medicinal-marijuana
users now have photo identification cards to prevent problems with police.

They have also been told their names will be in police computers.

But Devries said she and other people she knows with exemptions do not have
cards and, to date, her name has not been listed in police computers.

Reports said changes mean someone like Devries is allowed to grow her own
or get someone else to grow and supply her with medicinal pot.

"But I'm too sick to grow my own and any other person who grows for me is
supposed to do it for free because I'm not allowed to pay. The grower has
to keep records and can't have a drug record for 10 years," Devries said.
"That won't work."

In addition, a neighbour recently said she would have Devries evicted if
she grew pot at her Kitchener home.

She said reports noted Health Canada is growing pot in a mine shaft in Flin
Flon, Man., but has limited access to marijuana seeds and recently asked if
the U.S. could meet those needs.

Devries said the reports are a joke among pot users who know that Canadian
marijuana growers could supply plenty of high-quality seeds.

"We have growers who won medals and trophies when they have competed in
recent Cannabis Cup competitions in Holland and Canada," she said.