RAIL CRASH VICTIM WAS MEDICINAL MARIJUANA GROWER

Licensed Cannabis Producer Lobbied Governments For
Reform Of Criminal Laws

Don Faulkner, the Savona man killed in Thursday's rail crash, was a
licensed marijuana grower, committed pot activist and well-loved
community man.

Over the weekend, those who have been fighting for improvements to
Canada's fledgling and controversial medicinal marijuana program and
reform of the criminal law mourned his passing.

The 59-year-old Faulkner and his fellow conductor, 55-year-old Tom
Dodd, of Ashcroft, died at the scene of the crash 40 kilometres north
of Lillooet.

Gord Rhodes, the 49-year-old engineer, miraculously survived when he
was thrown from the derailment that saw his CN Rail train plunge down
a mountainside and explode in a fireball.

The three railway amigos had worked together for more than a
decade.

"Don was a great guy," said Eric Nash, Vancouver Island's best-known
legal marijuana producer and an information hub for medical users.

"He was a committed medical cannabis advocate, cultivator, and
supporter of people's right to use med cannabis. We've been e-mailing
each other since 2003, and Don joined the Medusers [activist] group
early in 2004."

Faulkner lobbied politicians and wrote newspapers pushing for the
rights of those who can benefit from the long-documented medicinal
properties of the criminally prohibited herb.

In 2004, he offered to be a designated grower for anyone in the
Kamloops area as he was already involved with Health Canada and had
completed his criminal records check.

Before the Liberals lost power, he wrote to then-Health Minister Ujjal
Dosanjh about cannabis testing at McGill University to determine if
there is any long-term harm from smoking or ingesting cannabis.

Faulkner was concerned about the marijuana produced by the only
company licensed by the federal government to legally produce pot --
Prairie Plant Systems. It grows its plants in an old mine site near
Flin Flon, Manitoba. He was concerned that if the supply of cannabis
was compromised, that could have consequences for the intended study
participants who were already extremely ill people.

"For somebody already ill, it would be paramount to ensure that this
study's product must pass the most stringent testing, for safety
concerns," he wrote.

Across the country Health Canada has licensed hundreds of people to
consume marijuana or to grow it.

"I respectfully submit that the already licensed growers of this herb
could be allowed an increase in their production licenses, with the
extra product going to McGill, for this study," Faulkner said. "Health
Canada has a full listing of all the licensed growers in this country,
of which I am proud to be included."

The compassion clubs are supplying quality medicine, at a far lower
cost to the end user, than the government has been able to do, he
maintained, and Ottawa is attempting to gain a monopoly in the
production of medical marijuana.

"The government does not distill the alcohol sold in liquor stores,
nor does it grow the tobacco grown for cigarette production in this
country," he said.

"They shouldn't be in the medical marijuana business either. Leave
that to those who know how to do it best."