TOKING UP TO FEEL BETTER NOT ACCEPTED AS MEDICAL NEED

Illegal Drugs Taboo For Offender; This Guy Not Listening

A group of 1,492 Canadians -- 21 per cent of them in B.C. -- are
allowed to get high every day for medical reasons.

But as much as Brian Riches might like to be, the inmate isn't among them.

The offender's toking finally caught up with him yesterday when
members of the National Parole Board rejected his pitch that
marijuana helped him chill out and actually cut the chances he might
commit more violent assaults.

Years ago, Riches was handed eight years, six months for savagely
smashing Jeff Hearn's head with a claw hammer in a home invasion.
Hearn required more than 100 staples in his skull and is on a
permanent disability pension, as he will never work again.

Released in late 2005, Riches was hauled back into medium security
Matsqui Institution last spring and again last summer for lighting
up. His parole conditions were clear: illegal drugs were taboo.

He was released a third time last fall but was puffing again in no
time. By November, he was back in the pen, his release revoked.

During yesterday's hearing, NPB members Terry Little and Gus
Richardson appeared to have little appetite for the offender's
recycled plea that getting stoned was the only way to calm his
jitters and ease chronic depression.

While pot may work that way for Riches, the panel noted that neither
ailment appears on the list of pain-induced medical conditions for
which the federal government allows pot possession or its cultivation.

The feds, in proclaiming the law in mid 2001 that provides access,
made it clear that those granted exemption from Canada's anti-drug
laws would be required to prove through the community of medical
professionals that they suffered from one or more grave or
debilitating illnesses, namely pain or severe muscle spasms from
multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease, as well as weight
loss or nausea from cancer or HIV/AIDs, and severe pain from
arthritis and seizures from epilepsy.

They're also expected to show they tried conventional treatments and
found them to be of little use.

As far as the community parole officer knew, Riches hadn't done that.

But more and more Canadians have. Stats gathered by Health Canada
show the government has allowed a growing number of citizens to smoke
or ingest the plant legally, although compared to the population who
indulge illegally, the tally is still minimal.

In 2003, the first year the program was in full bloom, 558 citizens,
108 of them living in B.C., were granted access either by purchasing
dried bud from Health Canada, growing a limited supply of their own
or by designating someone else to grow it for them.

The following year, the group expanded to include 692 people across
Canada, 144 in B.C.

By 2005, 901 Canadians were smoking legally, 181 of them in B.C.

That number grew to 1,492 in 2006 and included 320 B.C. residents --
three times the number of users in the initiative's first year.

But there were other factors to Riches' marijuana use that concerned
them, the board said. His repeated refusal to obey the rules and his
apparent lack of interest in addressing his emotional and mental
instability by seeking help through legit medical professionals also
convinced them he presented too high a risk to be allowed back into
the community.

The 33-year-old is entitled to statutory release again early next
year but the same conditions are apt to apply: do a joint and you're
back in the joint.