PATIENT ASKING OTTAWA FOR POT

Court action seeks supply for medical purposes

A Toronto AIDS patient who won the legal right to smoke marijuana is asking
the federal government to supply him with the drug.

Jim Wakeford and his lawyers launched a court action asking that Ottawa be
ordered to give him a safe and clean supply of marijuana so his earlier
court victory isn't rendered hollow.

A judge granted him a constitutional exemption last year allowing him to
smoke pot to relieve nausea and other side-effects of AIDS treatment. But
criminal charges can be laid against anyone selling or buying the drug on
his behalf.

Wakeford raised his concerns at a Queen's Park news conference yesterday,
where he said two of his caregivers have been arrested and he doesn't want
to put his friends at further risk.

He has neither the money nor the expertise to set up his own cultivation
operation, hydroponic or otherwise, he added.

``Now that winter has approached, I can no longer even try to cultivate on
my balcony as I did last summer,'' Wakeford, 55, says in an affidavit for an
Ontario Superior Court hearing set for March 17.

``I am not in a position to spend money on purchasing this equipment, and I
already have developed a conflict with Revenue Canada, who have disallowed
my 1998 medical expenses relating to the purchase of marijuana.''

Wakeford and his lawyers, Alan Young and Louis Sokolov, say Ottawa should
get the drug from British firm G.W. Pharmaceuticals, which is licensed to
grow marijuana in England for clinical trials in British hospitals.

Young said he received a letter last week from the company's financial
director, saying G.W. has offered federal health officials access to its
cannabis and is committed to helping sick Canadians.

``All Canada has to do is make the request and sign import and export
papers, and it should be here in 90 days,'' Young said.

Black-market marijuana carries the risk of contaminants that could be
dangerous to patients with suppressed immune systems, Wakeford added.

His court documents paint a contrast between the federal government's public
statements about opening the door to ``medical marijuana'' and its approach
in Wakeford's case.

Health Minister Allan Rock has announced plans for clinical trials, but his
officials recently refused Wakeford's request for the drug.

In a Dec. 29 letter to Young, Dann Michols, director general of Health
Canada, said supplying Wakeford with marijuana for compassionate reasons
could ``establish a precedent.''

The federal government then might have to supply the drug to all Canadians
who obtain constitutional exemptions for medical reasons, Michols wrote.

So far, about 19 other exemptions have been granted.

``What they're saying is, `We can't do the right thing, because we'd have to
do the right thing 19 times over' - and that's just the weakest argument
I've ever heard,'' Young said.

``What the government is doing is very admirable in terms of addressing the
needs of science, but it isn't really meeting the needs of sick people, and
that's why we're back in court.''

Michols said Ottawa has no access to ``a legal source of research-grade
marijuana.''

But Wakeford said health officials told him in discussions last fall that
they might be able to get it from a crop grown at the University of
Mississippi, which supplies it legally to eight sick Americans.