MEDICINAL MARIJUANA DEFENSE

Editor:

I'm writing in response to the havoc and chaos caused by RCMP members
who, ignorant of the laws that they supposedly enforce, have quite
literally destroyed the lives of med. marijuana patients Mr. & Mrs.
Roglich, as reported by your paper on January 4, 2007.

These people, as reported, both have Hepatitis C, a disease which at
present has no effective treatment protocol and is fatal in 100 per
cent of cases, over time. They were fully licensed by our Federal
Government to produce their meds to relieve to some degree at least,
the agony that their terminal disease offers. For the past 18 months,
federal statute law demands that all licensed med. marijuana
Producers-such as the Roglich's are-being identified to the RCMP by
Health Canada in order to prevent the type of tragedy that has now
been wrought upon them.

In this case, the RCMP did not check with Health Canada either out of
ignorance, indifference or spite-they just blindly charged in basing
their illegal actions on, to quote you, " Health Canada gives
medicinal users the option to release the information to local
authorities. In this case, the RCMP were uninformed."

If the police are to be given the powers that they are-it is
incumbent upon them to educate themselves as to the laws that they
are supposedly enforcing.

Michael Patriquen,

Halifax, N.S.