NEW FEDERAL RULES WILL RESTRICT USERS OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA TO ONE SUPPLIER

Michael Mann puffs contentedly on a glass pipe and exhales a cloud of
marijuana smoke that swirled around his cramped Victoria condo before
dissipating near the ceiling.

The hepatitis C sufferer is one of just 336 Canadians in "medical need" who
have been legally allowed to smoke pot since Ottawa first allowed
exemptions to drug laws on compassionate grounds in June 1998.

Last month, the federal government brought in a law to regularize the use
of medicinal marijuana, the first legislation of its kind in the world.

But for Mann, 43, the latest rules, as convoluted as the tendrils of smoke
floating around his living room, bring on anxiety more than relief.

"The new regulations have given us access to medical marijuana and then
thrown a whole whack of red tape at us," said the B.C. Marijuana party member.

The legislation consists of 34 pages of lawyers' language, including
complicated mathematical formulas to figure out permitted amounts of marijuana.

It was introduced a few weeks before Mann received a six-month exemption to
the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act under the old rules. More than 600
people who applied to use medicinal pot before the new rules came in are
still waiting to hear what happened to their applications. "I'm using
(marijuana) as an appetite stimulant, otherwise I couldn't get through the
day," the slim, wiry Mann said of his two-gram-a-day cannabis habit. "It
also keeps my stress level down."

He has framed the cover letter he received from Health Canada giving him
the OK to smoke, possess and grow pot. It hangs in a prominent place on a
wall, just in case the police drop by. So far, he said, the cops haven't
bothered him.

And no one in the condo building where Mann is strata council president
seems too concerned about his activities. He tries to be discreet, keeping
regular hours, going to bed most nights by 11 p.m. and rising at 7 or 8 a.m.

The exemption allows him to grow six plants and to possess up to 30 grams
of dried marijuana at any time.

Mann won this right by filling out a fairly straightforward application
form signed by his doctor. Under the new legislation he will have to fill
four lengthy forms including one that requires the approval of his doctor,
plus two specialists.

"How I am going to find two specialists -- there's usually a six-month
waiting list just to see them," he said. "It's a totally needless hassle."

The country's only authorized supply of marijuana is in an underground mine
in Flin Flon, Man. A Saskatoon company, Prairie Plant Systems, is growing
marijuana plants there for Health Canada, using as root stock illegal
plants seized by police. The company, whose previous experience was in
growing roses and Saskatoon berries, expects its first crop in February.

But pot aficionados like Mann scoff at the Flin Flon operation, saying
Ottawa could have picked growers with more expertise, scads of them live in
B.C. "They're growing tall spindly plants -- what we call schwag," Mann
said of the mine plantation. "It's really low-grade leaf that is useless
for my needs because it doesn't have enough THC," he said, referring to
tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient of marijuana that gets people high.

"If it's not good quality it's just no good," said Mann, who first tried
marijuana as a 12-year-old and has been a regular user since he was 16.

He has invested about $3,000 equipment bought from hydroponic shops,
friends and acquaintances.

His bathroom has been converted into a grow area where a half-dozen lush
marijuana plants with sticky buds are flourishing under two blazing
1,000-watt lamps. Fans blow fresh air into the room and oxygen to the
plants, strengthening their stalks, while stale air is vented out of the
room through ducts.

By reading books, magazines and reams of information available on the
Internet, as well as talking to friends familiar with the art of growing
pot, Mann has taught himself all the basics of supplying his own.

He figures if he wasn't able to smoke marijuana he'd probably be in
hospital, costing the taxpayer thousands of dollars.

And if he wasn't allowed to grow his own plants he estimates it would cost
him $600 to $700 to buy the equivalent amount of pot -- he reckons he uses
about a quarter of a pound a month. Surviving on odd jobs and a disability
pension he couldn't afford the marijuana if he didn't grow it himself.

Mann wants to move out of his small apartment and rent a house. But he said
that's a problem for him and others in his situation. He placed an ad in
the Times Colonist looking for a landlord who might be willing to rent a
home and allow the cultivation of pot on the premises.

So far he has received no replies.

Mann said he's not just thinking of himself but of establishing a registry
of "pot-friendly" landlords who could be used by the Vancouver Island
Compassion Society, which distributes marijuana to members to alleviate
suffering from a variety of illnesses..

He is a board director of the society, which has 185 members all referred
by doctors, only seven of whom have federal exemptions to use pot.

Mann, who ran in last spring's provincial election as a B.C. Marijuana
Party candidate in the Oak Bay-Gordon Head riding (winning 411 votes), said
he plans to diligently fill out the latest forms and deal with his
situation as best he can.

But common sense suggests that Ottawa should move to legalize marijuana,
especially given the widespread support from most Canadians, he said. "It's
inevitable, it's going to happen anyway."

Philippe Lucas agrees. Lucas is another director of the compassion society
from Oak Bay who has an exemption that allows him to smoke pot. Health
Canada's new system "isn't adequate enough to process the high demand by
critically and chronically ill people in Canada," he said.

Unless people are likely to die within 12 months, applicants for medicinal
marijuana are faced with a wait of months if not years to see medical
specialists, said Lucas, who has Hepatitis C.

"Even in Victoria it takes me eight months to see a Hepatitis C specialist
... it's inexcusable to put this many obstacles in the way of sick people."

The regulations are so cumbersome that only a dozen people have applied for
the right to possess pot under the revamped regulations.

Lucas felt the sting of the law when the society's club was broken into
last November by a burglar who made off with marijuana and cash. After Oak
Bay police tracked down the burglar, Lucas was arrested after police
searches of the compassion society's office and his home.

A preliminary hearing into three counts of trafficking and one of
possession for the purpose of trafficking is scheduled for the end of
January 2002.

Grant Obst, president of the Canadian Police Association, said last week
that pot is already decriminalized because most small-time tokers get off
with a slap on the wrist rather than serious penalties.

But Lucas rattled off statistics showing that police are devoting more
resources to combating marijuana use than hard drugs such as heroin and
cocaine. Marijuana arrests in Vancouver last year, for example, totalled
1,091, up 95 per cent from the year before, said Lucas.

Otherwise law-abiding people who see marijuana as a relief for painful
illnesses shouldn't have to worry about the police knocking on their door,
Lucas said.

A jury in Calgary sent a strong message this summer that it believes people
should be able to sell marijuana to chronically ill people. The jury
decided in June that medical marijuana crusader Grant Krieger was justified
in breaking the law by growing 29 plants in his home for members of a
compassion club. He was acquitted of a trafficking charge.

A Duncan couple, meanwhile, has created a Web site to help clarify some of
the confusion surrounding the new regulations.

Eric Nash, a computer programmer, and Wendy Little started the
medicalmarihuana.ca site a couple of weeks ago. They got the idea after a
77-year-old relative with Parkinson's disease wanted to explore the
possibility of using marijuana "but he found information was hard to find,"
said Nash.

Since the site was launched Aug. 14, "we've had more than 40,000 hits,
which is just phenomenal."

Nash, who doesn't use marijuana, said people are thirsting for more
information about its medicinal use.

A common concern is finding a doctor willing to sign forms for applicants,
he said.

The site includes links to Health Canada's Internet site, plus a forum that
allows people to exchange information on subjects ranging from how to grow
marijuana to medical research on the drug.

Paige Raymond-Kovach, Health Canada spokeswoman in Ottawa and a former
Victoria resident, said the government's Web site contains all the
information people need to know, but she conceded, "You have to know how to
navigate it."

Because of the lack of research into medical use of marijuana, Health
Canada, which has established an `Office of Cannabis Medical Access,'
acknowledges there are a lot of loose ends.

"There's so many questions and we don't have answers to every question --
it's an ongoing process," Raymond-Kovach said.

It's not surprising that so few people have applied to use marijuana since
the regulations are so new, she said.

People with existing exemptions will be given a six-month extension before
they have to reapply, she said. Meanwhile, the government is working on a
guideline for doctors, who are required to recommend a dose for patients
they recommend for marijuana use.

The government is "still setting targets" for how quickly applications for
the medicinal use of marijuana will take to process.

There are three categories of applicant:

- - Those with a terminal illness, who are given top priority, Raymond-Kovach
said. These patients only have to get a doctor's authorization when they apply.

- - People with a range of illnesses including AIDS/ HIV infection, severe
arthritis, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease and
anorexia. Applicants need a specialist's authorization in addition to a
general practitioner's.

- - Those suffering other medical conditions where `conventional treatments
have failed or are otherwise medically inappropriate.' A doctor plus two
specialists sign the form.