THE GROWING USE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Although fewer than 3,000 Canadians are licensed to use medical
marijuana, it's estimated that between 400,000 and one million people
in the country use cannabis as medication. The following is the first
article in a series about the use of marijuana to treat medical conditions.

Trent Hills - Wendal Grant pulls a slim white tube of rolled paper
out of a silver case, puts it in his mouth and applies the flame of a
lighter to its tip, drawing in and expelling a cloud of smoke. It
doesn't take long for the pungent, but not unpleasant smell of
marijuana to fill the room.

A friend, who goes by the name of Grama-D, joins Grant, lighting her
own joint and inhaling smoke containing what are, to both of them,
health-enhancing cannabinoids, chemical compounds that give the plant
not only its psychoactive properties but its capacity to relieve
pain, reduce nausea and treat the symptoms of diseases ranging from
Crohn's Disease to Multiple Sclerosis.

Grant - not his real name - and Grama-D, are among the 2,500
Canadians who are licensed by Health Canada to possess and consume
marijuana for medical purposes. The Trent Hills residents each smoke
up to five grams of marijuana - about 10 joints - each day to relieve
the symptoms of their medical conditions. Grant has Crohn's, an
inflammatory bowel disease, and Grama-D has HepatitisC. Both are
considered ill enough to qualify for the medical marijuana exemption
under the federal government's medical marijuana program.

Five years ago, Grant was a supervisor at a local company and an
active member of the community. Then he was diagnosed with Crohn's
and spent two weeks in the hospital, plunging from his normal weight
of 185 pounds down to 119.

Pumped full of morphine in the hospital, he was sent home with a
prescription for morphine, the powerful and addictive pain-killing
drug. Then he discovered that smoking cannabis relieved the
inflammation and controlled the pain of his Crohn's Disease. The
discovery changed his life. Returning the unused morphine pills to
the pharmacy, he became an active promoter of the positive benefits
of a plant he feels has been unfairly demonized by society.

It is this activism which gave him the courage to come forward and
talk about a controversial drug that is still regarded with distrust
- - if not horror - by people who group it together with other illicit
substances such as cocaine and heroin. Grant said he decided to speak
to the local media after seeing yet another story about police
raiding local marijuana grow operations. If police disposing of large
quantities of marijuana from illegal grow operations is the only
image in the public consciousness, then attitudes won't change, he
said during an interview with The CommunityPress in his Trent Hills home.

"There is another side to the story that never gets told and that
never gets the publicity or the headlines that the negative side, no
matter what, gets. There are many people like myself that believe
people should learn the truth, instead of being told the same
reported story over and over," Grant stated.

Although fewer than 3,000 Canadians are licensed to use medical
marijuana, it's estimated that between 400,000 and one million people
in the country use cannabis as medication, according to Grant.

And according to a United Nations report close to 17 per cent of
Canadians use or have used marijuana. "And that's only the people who
admit to it," Grant said, stressing that the use of cannabis is more
widespread than most people imagine. But the stigma remains, and
affects even those who are given permission to legally use the drug.

The Health Canada application to use marijuana for medical purposes
is more than 20 pages long and contains a separate application to
grow the plants. Licensed users who don't grow their own plants can
purchase dried, prepared marijuana from the federal government, which
has its own grow operation in Manitoba. The alternative is to
designate another user to grow your supply, said Grant, who has a
small grow operation in his basement to provide medical marijuana for
himself and Grama-D.

In one corner of Grant's low-ceilinged basement is his grow
operation, which includes a section containing the natural
fertilizers, including kelp, bone meal, egg shells and worm castings,
needed to grow healthy plants. "Everything is grown organically,"
Grant said, noting that his small grow-op is safe and clean. He uses
sodium lights and has a ventilation system that circulates air from
the outside. The marijuana is grown using the same methods and
equipment that would be used to grow tomatoes, he said.

Grant has painstakingly acquired a wealth of information about
growing and using medical marijuana. He even writes articles for the
magazine "Treating Yourself," the only mass circulation publication
dedicated to medical marijuana. Wendal Grant is the pseudonym he uses
in the magazine.

Grant is also involved with a group called Medical Marijuana
Awareness. As a member he helps people go through the medical
marijuana application process and travels to venues such as the
Toronto Home Show to distribute information about the use of
marijuana as medicine. The process of educating people about the
benefits of the plant must be taken "one step at a time," Grant said.
"We are trying to change people's perceptions by getting out there
and telling the truth."