MEDICAL POT USER SAYS CHILDREN SEIZED

An outspoken B.C. medical marijuana
advocate says social workers have removed his four children because
Health Canada granted him a personal exemption that allows him to
legally smoke the drug.

Brian Carlisle said Tuesday his six-year-old daughter, as well as his
common-law wife's three young children, were removed on April 9 after
someone alleged the children were given drugs.

Carlisle, an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church of
Modesta, California, says parents who use marijuana for medical or
recreational purposes are at risk of losing their children.

According to Carlisle, ministry of children and families workers took
urine samples from the children, which all turned out negative. But
Carlisle and his wife, Rochelle Lofton, have not been allowed to see
the children without supervision from social workers, and they don't
know when they will get them back.

"I'm a wreck," Carlisle said in an interview from his home in Hope.
"Sometimes it's hard to function. I've never been hit so low as I have
now."

Carlisle, 30, added that he and Lofton would gladly submit the
children to daily drug tests if it would mean the children could be
returned. He said the children have never been given drugs or exposed
to drugs.

A ministry official said Tuesday social workers can remove children
from their parents if they are suspected of giving them drugs,
exposing them to drugs, or involving them in selling or cultivating
drugs.

The ministry can also remove children if drugs render their parents
incapable of responsible parenting, the official said.

The official would not comment specifically on Carlisle's
case.

In its guidelines for how patients can apply for an exemption to use
marijuana, Health Canada specifies the health minister will consider
the seriousness of the medical condition, how the use of the drug will
help the patient, whether the patient has tried other therapies and
whether the patient's doctor recommends use of the drug.

The patient must provide the federal ministry with a name, address,
birth date, gender and medical diagnosis.

The guidelines do not say whether Health Canada considers whether the
patient has children, but they say the health minister can request
other information from the patient.

But Carlisle said provincial authorities have ignored his federal
exemption, and he charged that other federal exemptees have also had
problems with social workers.

Carlisle's adoptive father, reached at his home in Hope, said Tuesday
he does not speak to his son.

George Carlisle said his son's daughter Katherine has lived with him
on and off for the past three years, in part because Brian is not a
good parent.

"They're on and off, you know," George Carlisle said of his son and
Lofton.

When asked to explain, he said: "They're not reliable. He hasn't been
here for a long time as far as I'm concerned."

Brian Carlisle said that he and his father have differences of
opinion, but he rejected George's comments about his parenting.

"I've been there for Katherine since the day she was
born."

Carlisle has taken a high-profile role in the fight to legalize
marijuana for medical purposes. He became an exemptee this year to
treat his glaucoma and chronic pain.

Carlisle also made headlines last February when he drove to Ontario to
attend a Health Canada conference of medical marijuana. Carlisle said
at the conference that he wants Health Canada to set up a ministry of
marijuana and that the government should make him minister.