WOMAN SAYS SHE MUST SEND MOTHER TO BUY POT

Wants Ottawa To Offer Safe Marijuana Supply

A woman with multiple sclerosis says she has resorted to asking her mother
to help her buy marijuana off the street because Ottawa is not offering a
safe, affordable supply of the drug.

"I never dreamed that my mother would be running around to help me buy pot
and risking arrest like a common criminal," said Alison Myrden, 36, of
Burlington.

Myrden got an exemption from Health Canada March 21 that allows her to grow
a small quantity of marijuana for medicinal purposes, but says "that doesn't
even begin to cover what I need."

Myrden, who was diagnosed in 1992 with multiple sclerosis, requires the
marijuana to alleviate the excruciating stabbing facial pains she
experiences around the clock.

She says she discovered the soothing quality of marijuana in 1997, when a
friend who could not bear witnessing her pain "thrust a marijuana cigarette
at me," and within 10 minutes she was pain-free for 21 hours.

Myrden makes no secret of the fact she has to go to the illicit drug market
to purchase marijuana - even though she is authorized by the federal
government to use it.

"At one point my mom and my boyfriend were taking me around to some pretty
disreputable places to try and find marijuana for pain relief," Myrden said
in a telephone interview.

She says "a good Samaritan," who is risking arrest by helping her buy
marijuana, is also assisting a multiple sclerosis patient who is severely
disabled and cannot leave home to buy the drug.

"I'm certainly proud of my daughter," Alison's mother, Joyce Myrden, said
yesterday. "She has put up a phenomenal fight with what she has had to cope
with.

"It's just too bad that she and the others have been caught in a political
football game. They are in a position where they have the legal right to the
medication but are denied access to it."

In July, 1999, Joyce Myrden wrote Health Minister Allan Rock that "when
Alison relied on prescribed medications for her pain control she became very
lethargic and almost comatose, (so that) I could not justify this as any
kind of quality of life.

"The marijuana allows her to lead a relatively normal life, so I took it
upon myself to finance her purchasing what she required from 'the street.' "

Last week, Jim Wakeford, a Toronto man with full-blown AIDS who was the
first in Canada to be granted permission to smoke pot for medicinal
purposes, went to court to seek a safe supply of marijuana.

He also asked that his dealers be exempted from drug trafficking and
possession laws.

Mr. Justice Blenus Wright has not yet ruled on the request.

Roslyn Tremblay, a spokesperson for Health Canada, said the government
recognizes there is no legal supply of marijuana for medical purposes, and
confirmed that 34 exemptions have been issued since June, 1999, under the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Tremblay says the government is moving to support research into the medical
use of marijuana and will be issuing a request for proposals.

But for Myrden, change can't come soon enough.

"I'm excited something is being done, and thankful for what I have received
so far," she says.

"But it's time for the government to find the courage and follow through so
that there won't be any more unnecessary suffering."