AIDS PATIENT WANTS POT FROM OTTAWA

Heading to court to force federal government to legally supply drug From
Canadian Press Jim Wakeford is tired of buying drugs on the street when the
federal government is growing a safe supply of pot in a Manitoba bunker.

The Toronto AIDS patient is heading back to court Friday in an attempt to
force Ottawa to supply him with a drug he says helps combat nausea,
stimulate appetite and relieve stress.

Wakeford, one of the first Canadians given an exemption to grow and smoke
medicinal marijuana, wants the Ontario Court of Appeal to overturn a lower
court ruling that the federal government does not have to supply him with pot.

The 56-year-old says he shouldn't have to buy marijuana of unknown quality
from a network of confidential contacts when the government is spending
millions of dollars to grow the plant in a Prairie bunker.

Prairie Plant Systems of Saskatoon won a five-year, $5.7-million contract
from the government to supply marijuana for medical and research purposes.

The growing operation, in Flin Flon, Man., must produce standardized weed
within a year.

But Wakeford says he can't wait for clinical trials to be completed.

"There is no right without remedy. To give someone an exemption allowing
them to use and cultivate marijuana but no legal access to it and no help,
that is not a very kind or courteous way, let alone compassionate way, to
treat sick and dying and disabled Canadians," he said.

Since 1999, when Wakeford gained the right to possess, cultivate and use
marijuana, Health Canada has given out more than 140 other exemptions.

In addition to a safe supply, he wants "caregivers" who supply the drug to
be immune from prosecution.

Wakeford added that medicinal marijuana should be funded through provincial
health-care plans like traditional drugs.

"I know I'm a dreamer but they should be free," he said.

The Ontario Superior Court ruled last May that Ottawa doesn't have to
ensure a safe supply since Wakeford had "no real difficulty" obtaining
marijuana.

Justice Blenus Wright also said Ottawa is moving at a reasonable pace to
provide marijuana clinical trials for HIV and AIDS patients.

Marijuana is "not the only avenue" that could alleviate the side effects of
the medication Wakeford takes to treat his illness, added Wright.

Meanwhile, a similar case is currently winding its way through the Alberta
court system.

In December, a judge stayed cultivation charges against a multiple
sclerosis patient who uses pot to treat his illness, saying granting
exemptions to the law without a legal supply is an "absurdity."

The Alberta Crown has said it will appeal that ruling.

Wakeford has been to court many times in the past few years. Last month,
the Toronto activist lost the first round in a battle to kill himself with
the help of a doctor.

An Ontario judge dismissed Wakeford's lawsuit against the attorney general,
citing a 1993 Supreme Court decision to uphold the assisted-suicide law in
the Sue Rodriguez case.

In 1993, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 5-4 against Rodriguez's right to
assisted-suicide. A year later, she enlisted the aid of a doctor who agreed
to give her a lethal injection of morphine and secobarbital.