ONE SMOKER'S SOURCE FOR POT: POLICE STATION

HIV-Positive Man Gets Marijuana Back Thanks To Federal Medical Exemption

In a drug deal not likely to be seen again, Tim Patterson walked out of a
police station yesterday with a bag of marijuana that vice officers had
just returned to him.

"I'm happy. Very happy," Patterson said, standing in front of the vice
building on Princess Street, holding a plastic bag full of the narcotic.
"I'd like to get off the street with this big bag of dope in my hand."

Yesterday's hand-off was the latest in a legal battle that Patterson, 37
and HIV-positive, has been waging for years over his right to smoke
marijuana for its beneficial medicinal effects.

He says smoking pot increases his appetite and decreases his nausea,
allowing him to keep food down and better fight the illness he's had since
1987.

"I weigh more now than I have in my whole life," Patterson said, adding he
smoked a joint half an hour before he went down to see police. He wants to
be known as Marijuana Man and jokes about getting a cape.

Three times in the past three years, police have confiscated his product
and charged him. Yesterday, they returned the evidence from his last bust
in September, 1999.

Patterson now has a medical exemption from Health Canada to grow plants for
his own consumption, one of 57 people in the country who can do so. The
exemption entitles him to keep three mature and four young plants, as well
as 80 grams on hand. He can't carry more than 30 grams on his person.

Last summer, Health Minister Allan Rock approved the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes and the government is accepting tenders from companies
who will grow the drug so any benefits can be tested.

Health Canada won't say how many people in the province have been granted
the medical exemption and local police don't have to be notified, because
of confidentiality. Patterson said he knew of at least two others in
Manitoba who had applied, but didn't know if they'd been successful.

Police spokesman Const. Bob Johnson said the medical exemption is why the
Crown decided to stay charges against Patterson and instructed police to
return his dope.

"I'm pretty sure he's the first guy (we've returned drugs to)," Johnson
said.

Patterson also had his hydroponic grow equipment returned to him, but has a
few concerns that weren't answered. He says it will take him 12 weeks to
grow a new, usable crop and the 30 grams he had returned won't last the
entire time. That means buying it from someone else and he'd like to see
them protected from legal action.

And he's interested to see what happens when he returns to his job as a
transportation office clerk with his company -- which has a zero-tolerance
policy on drugs.

He's been off on sick leave since January and doesn't expect to go back
until at least the end of the year.

Meanwhile, at least one group of Manitobans has put in a bid to grow
marijuana for the government trials testing its medicinal value.

Public Works and Government Services Canada won't say how many applications
it had received by its June 28 deadline. But about 144 groups or
individuals had requested bid packages.

About 10 from Manitoba initially received information, but an informal
survey of about half of those found only one who followed through.

Shaun Crew, who works for a hemp processing plant but is teaming up with a
group of individuals to put a bid in, said he's not surprised many decided
not to go forward with it.

"You assume all the responsibility, cost, risk."