POT NOW AVAILABLE FOR MINOR ILLNESSES

Court rulings have chipped away at federal restrictions

Minor physical conditions from writer's cramp to colour blindness are enough
to qualify now for home delivery of medical marijuana -- with no doctor's
prescription needed.

A year and a half ago, the federal government passed regulations saying
medical marijuana would be available only to people with a serious illness,
and only with a physician's permission.

Such legal restrictions appear to have wilted.

Three weeks ago, an Ontario judge declared them unconstitutional.

Police disagree and local suppliers remain careful, although some provide
pot on recommendations from practitioners such as massage therapists.

Mark Johnson, a 29-year-old Edmonton entrepreneur, is entering the field
with his new Canadian Compassion Club.

Johnson said he has a secure supply of the product and is promising "fast,
free-delivery service Canada-wide."

"People put marijuana down because it was looked at as a drug at one time,
but it's not," Johnson said. "It's 100-per-cent herb."

His new venture already has competition. The Krieger Foundation, founded by
Calgary marijuana advocate Grant Krieger and his wife Marie, supplies
marijuana around the country and to a client in Hawaii.

The Kriegers have recently opened an Edmonton branch, run by a former nurse
and hepatitis C sufferer out of her home.

In Montreal, the federal Marijuana Party has opened an Internet site
offering to mail marijuana to Canadians with any of nearly 200 ailments
including hiccups, whiplash and colour blindness.

The party won a court ruling in late December opening the door to such
sales. The judge concluded that since the federal government has failed to
provide a supply of medicinal marijuana, patients have a right to look
elsewhere.

"There's a growing interest out there," Marie Krieger said in an interview
from Calgary. She and her husband hope to open a store soon in Calgary.

The Krieger Foundation may have a marketing edge in the growing competition,
thanks to Marie Krieger's creation of a "doc bar" -- a cereal bar made with
marijuana.

It delivers the drug without the necessity of smoking. Krieger named it
after a client who is a physician and a big fan of the cereal bar.

The doctor's 80-year-old mother is using the marijuana bars for her
osteoarthritis, Krieger said.

"She's off her morphine and she eats doc bars all day."

Krieger said that because Alberta physicians won't order medicinal marijuana
for their patients, her group uses other "licensed practitioners" for the
referral -- people such as massage therapists, chiropractors and
reflexologists.

Johnson said his service will require a doctor's recommendation. However,
when informed of the Kriegers' approach, he seemed less sure about the
requirement.

Johnson, who calls himself a business consultant and private investor, said
he uses marijuana for chronic pain and other problems: "I have fatigue. I
can't sleep. I have another problem: I don't eat. That (marijuana) helps me
right there."

The medical marijuana business isn't completely out in the open.

Edmonton police say selling medicinal marijuana must be done by the strict
letter of the current law, which means the seller must be federally
licensed.

"Anything outside that would be breaking the law," police spokesman Dean
Parthenis said.

Sending marijuana through the mail still constitutes trafficking, Alberta
RCMP spokesman Const. Al Fraser said.

Krieger said the foundation "does everything very, very discreetly through
the mail."

She drove to Edmonton on Sunday with two ounces of marijuana for clients
here, she said. Given the price of gas, the trip isn't exactly a paying
proposition, she said.