PROF GETS VENTILATED ROOM TO SMOKE POT FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS

A York University professor who obtained permission to use medical
marijuana on campus said he worries the publicity surrounding the
event will overshadow his record as an award-winning criminologist.

Brian MacLean, who said he has smoked surreptitiously since his
arrival on campus in the summer, asked York's faculty association
Sept. 11 to ask the university, on his behalf, to create a ventilated
room on campus. He will be granted that request Nov. 5, but he said
he feels the time it took for the university to respond was too long.

"The fear to me is [that] my reputation is going to be damaged," he
said. "It's going to be hard to overcome. [ . . . ] I tried to do
things quietly and surreptitiously, and it did not turn out that way."

MacLean is spending a year teaching at York on the strength of his
reputation as an academic; he has worked on more than a dozen books
and also netted an award from the American Society of Criminology in 1993.

He holds a Health Canada medical certificate that lets him use
marijuana to manage the pain from his osteopathology, a condition
that causes the bones of the body to leak calcium and degenerate.

York administration was not aware of MacLean's medical request until
Oct. 18, when a journalist who caught wind of the case called its
media relations department, said Alex Bilyk, spokesperson for MacLean's case.

Upon further investigation Bilyk found MacLean's request had not
reached the labour relations department.

Ontario labour law requires employers to make accommodations for
employees with medical illnesses. Once the request went to the right
place, Bilyk said the university moved quickly to help MacLean.

"In any kind of medical scenario an accommodation has to be reached,"
Bilyk said. "This is the first time we've dealt with this type of
request. It may sound simple once it's resolved, but it may take a
while to be done."

Although he has had the illness for most of his adult life,
56-year-old MacLean said he used resistance training to manage it
until his back was broken in three places during a near fatal car
accident three years ago.

It took several months for his back to heal fully enough for him to
exercise, during which time the illness advanced. This required him
to seek alternative treatments, he said.

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act permits the use of
medical marijuana -- if other drugs are ineffective or caused an
allergic or adverse reaction -- for patients with terminal illnesses
or certain medical conditions.

For example, marijuana can be used to control epileptic seizures or
to reduce severe pain for patients with HIV, multiple sclerosis or arthritis.

In all cases the marijuana must be bought from a licensed dealer and
cannot be given away or resold.

Jason Bouzanis, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said he was aware
of MacLean's case but could not comment on it due to privacy concerns.

"A license to smoke marijuana does not exempt patients from federal,
provincial or municipal laws," he added.

The University of Toronto faced a similar situation earlier this fall
when Doug Hutchinson, a philosophy professor, requested a ventilated
room to use medical marijuana for an illness he did not disclose.

The university granted him a room during the last week of September,
said spokesperson Margaret MacMillan.

"It was clearly a new issue for the university, and I'm glad we came
to an accommodation," she said.