PAINED POT ACTIVIST JUST WANTS HIS MILK AND MARIJUANA IN PRISON

B.C. Lawyer Takes Up Convict's Case To Force Ottawa To Provide Some Pain
Relief

Michael Patriquen may be in a jail cell, but he believes he still has the
right to eat marijuana cookies there to ease the pain of injuries he
suffered in a car accident four years ago.

While Patriquen is in jail in New Brunswick, his case has been taken up by
B.C. lawyer John Conroy, who specializes in marijuana law and prison reform.

Conroy filed an application in federal court in Vancouver last week seeking
to compel federal Health Minister Anne McLellan to provide prison officials
with an adequate supply of marijuana to provide Patriquen with pain relief.

Patriquen, a 49-year-old pot activist who founded the Nova Scotia Marijuana
Party, has a Health Canada exemption allowing him to possess marijuana to
alleviate the pain stemming from injuries received in a motor vehicle
accident four years ago.

Since September, he has been in the minimum-security Westmorland federal
prison in New Brunswick, serving a six-year sentence for marijuana
trafficking and cultivation.

Patriquen claims his constitutional right to obtain his medicinal marijuana
is being violated by the Correctional Service of Canada, the National
Parole Board and McLellan.

His legal action states that he should be released from prison if he is not
provided with medicinal marijuana.

"I am not asking to grow my own cannabis (marijuana) in the institution or
to smoke it ... only to access it as a medicine through health care in the
same fashion as other prisoners access methadone or other more significant
side effect type medications," says Patriquen's affidavit, which was filed
in federal court in Vancouver by Conroy.

"He just wants to be able to have a marijuana cookie and a glass of milk,"
said Conroy of his client.

Currently, the government does not provide medicinal marijuana to people
who have exemptions to possess and grow marijuana for treatment of their
pain and illness.

In March, federal Solicitor- General Wayne Easter, commenting on the
Patriquen case, said the government is opposed to the use of medicinal
marijuana in prisons.

"We don't want to go down that route...if you are in prison you're not
there to smoke marijuana," he said.

Patriquen says in his affidavit, which was obtained by The Vancouver Sun,
that "due to my deteriorating health condition over the past six months, my
life has become a nightmare. I am in constant pain 24 hours a day. The only
variable is the degree of pain I suffer that varies from very bad to
agonizing."

Patriquen said he suffers from nausea, is getting weak and has lost about
20 kilograms since he was sent to prison last Sept. 10.

He first received approval for cannabis therapy by Health Canada in August,
2001. Last July, he received a medical marijuana exemption from the
government, allowing him to possess up to 150 grams of pot at any time,
grow up to 25 marijuana plants and store up to 1,125 grams (there are 28
grams in an ounce).

The legal action also included a number of supporting affidavits, including
one from Patriquen's family physician, Dr. Susan Lappin of Nova Scotia, who
is very concerned about her patient's deteriorating condition.

The doctor noted "there was a marked improvement in his condition when he
was not in custody" because he was able to access marijuana and ease his pain.

Another affidavit was from Steven William Tuck of Vancouver, who says he
supplied the seeds used to grow pot plants in an abandoned mine in Flin
Flon, Man., for the federal government.

The affidavit was filed to show a federal court judge that the government
already has a supply of medicinal marijuana.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Canada heard a constitutional challenge of
Canada's marijuana law by two B.C. men and a companion case from Ontario.
The court reserved judgment.

The government has suggested it plans to move ahead with decriminalizing
the possession of small amounts of marijuana.