SMOKING MEDICINAL POT LEADS TO SUSPENSION

A Port Moody man with multiple sclerosis (MS) is protesting a 24-hour
road suspension issued to him last weekend for smoking medicinal
marijuana in a parked car.

Twenty-three-year-old Sepanta Salmassi was issued the suspension
Saturday night and his brother's car was towed from the Zellers
parking lot in Coquitlam after an RCMP officer found Salmassi in the
car smoking a joint.

Salmassi, who was diagnosed with the degenerative disease three years
ago, has been granted a federal exemption from Health Canada to smoke
the drug for medicinal purposes.

While he can legally smoke it anywhere, Salmassi said he often leaves
the house when his parents are home -- the conservative Iranian family
has difficulty accepting their son's treatment.

"I don't want to do it in front of people, not everybody knows that
it's medicine for me," he said. "My own mom doesn't like it, even
though she accepts it, she still doesn't like it. If she doesn't like
it, what are other people going to think of me?

"When my parents aren't home, I do it in my room," he said, adding
that he bought an air purifier to alleviate the smell. "I don't like
to disrespect my parents, because they don't find it the same way I
do. My mom understands it's medicinal, and that the doctor gave it to
me, but I know they don't feel the same way."

That's why, on Saturday, Salmassi and two friends got in his brother's
BMW and drove to the northwest parking lot at Coquitlam Centre, so he
could smoke marijuana without bothering his parents.

He says his two friends waited outside the car while Salmassi, sitting
in the driver's seat, lit the joint. He was puffing away when a
Coquitlam RCMP officer showed up. His friends got back in the car when
the officer arrived.

Salmassi said the officer asked what he was doing, and he replied that
he was smoking pot for medicinal purposes -- producing his federal
exemption licence as proof, and handed over his marijuana.

It was at this point, Salmassi said, that the officer asked all three
men to get out of the car and started to search the trio.

"He asked me if I had any needles. I said, 'Listen buddy, I'm not a
crackhead,'" he recalled, adding the officer was terse and didn't seem
to understand his condition.

Salmassi said the symptoms of his MS are exacerbated by cold and,
given the frigid temperatures Saturday night, he repeatedly asked the
officer to sit in his brother's car or in the back of the police
cruiser. He said he spent 15 to 20 minutes out in the chilly weather.

After coming back to the three men, the officer informed Salmassi he
was being issued a 24-hour suspension and the car would be towed.

Salmassi said he tried to explain to the officer that he had no
intention of operating the vehicle.

"I wasn't going to drive home. I can't drive when I'm impaired,"
Salmassi said, adding that he brought his friends along so they could
drive him home. "Drinking and driving, smoking and driving, it's the
same thing."

In the end, Salmassi had to pay $110 to get his brother's car back
from the tow yard, and is appalled he now has a 24-hour suspension on
his driving record.

"All I was doing was smoking my legal substance. I'm not doing
anything wrong," he said. "I wasn't even going to drive. I tried to
tell him that I'm not stupid."

It's not the first time Salmassi has stumbled upon the police while he
was smoking marijuana.

"Other cops, every time they've come up to me and I've given them my
licence, they're like, 'Oh, that's cool. How'd you get it?'" he said.
"They think it's cool that I have this, because I wasn't smoking it
and driving. I don't smoke and drive."

Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Brenda Gresiuk said Tuesday that, under the Motor
Vehicle Act, officers are given discretionary powers to issue 24-hour
suspensions if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a person's
ability to operate a motor vehicle is impaired by drugs.

Sitting in the driver's seat with or without the keys in the ignition,
she said, qualifies as "reasonable suspicion."

"Regardless of the purpose of the marijuana, the effects are still the
same. If you're smoking for medicinal purposes or you're smoking for
enjoyment, it still has the same effect," she said. "There's two
topics here: One is the fact that (someone has) the right to possess
it and smoke it, and then there's the right to operate a motor
vehicle. That (federal exemption) does not allow you to operate a
motor vehicle while smoking it ...

"We're not stopping him from smoking marijuana."

Gresiuk confirmed that Salmassi has lodged a grievance against the
24-hour suspension, which she says will be investigated by the
detachment's professional standards unit.

According to J.K. Leung, spokesperson for the B.C. Compassion Club
Society, people who smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes do come
across unsympathetic police officers from time to time. "It's
relatively rare, all things considered," Leung said. "The only
completely legal way to possess marijuana is to have the federal
government licence through Health Canada.

"He (Salmassi) should be in a strong position for some legal recourse
there, I would imagine, if he's got a federal exemption."

Police officers working in urban areas are also more likely to be
empathetic in dealing with those who are smoking pot for medicinal
purposes, he added.

"In our experience, it is really true that the Vancouver Police are
much more likely to recognize and honour our card," he said. "The RCMP
are a lot less likely to know what we're doing."

NOW YOU KNOW:

Federal regulations

According to the B.C. Compassion Club Society, four per cent of
Canadians over age 15 use marijuana for medicinal purposes, about one
million people. Since the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations came
into effect in 2001, fewer than 2,000 Canadians have received a
federal exemption from Health Canada to smoke medicinal marijuana.

To gain a federal licence, people must fill out a 33-page application
form.

Category 1 applicants include those who have severe pain and/or
persistent muscle spasm from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury,
spinal cord disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, severe forms of arthritis or
epileptic seizures.

Category 2 applicants include those with debilitating symptoms from
medical conditions other than those described in Category 1, which
must be confirmed by a specialist, not just a family physician.
Federal exemptions are valid for one year only. Licence holders must
reapply every year.

Applicants with a terminal illness are given priority for processing.