10 CALGARIANS TO WATCH

From dance to academics, from technology to theatre and from entertainment
to a big small business and beyond, as Avenue bids adieu to 1999 we take a
look ahead at some of the personalities that are shaping our city. The
roster for our second annual `10 Calgarians to Watch' special feature is
both eclectic and diverse. A controversial social activist, two comic book
creators, a medical researcher and an Olympic hopeful all fit the bill:
each one is poised on the edge of excellence. So keep your eye on these 10
achievers - you're likely to be hearing a lot more about them in the year
to come.

1. Social Activism

This spring Grant Krieger goes to Calgary's Court of Queen's Bench to argue
that he has the freedom to heal his multiple sclerosis by using marijuana

One night five years ago, Grant Krieger swallowed 50 Demerol tablets and a
handful of sleeping pills. Had his wife not called an ambulance, he would
have willingly died after years of suffering from multiple sclerosis so
severe he couldn't walk or control his bowels.

Shortly thereafter, a friend suggested marijuana. Miraculously, he says,
the pain and muscle spasms of his incurable disease soon subsided, and he's
now able to walk with just a slight limp and even drive a car with manual
transmission. Today at 45, Krieger is fervently alive and on a mission to
have marijuana legalized for medicinal purposes.

"I tried the government's way (prescription drugs) and I tried suicide,"
says the slender but intense Krieger as he sits in a southeast Calgary home
suffused with a slightly sweet scent.

"The last thing I want to do now is die. I know what's good for my health,
yet the government wants to put me in a wheelchair in prison over a little
pot." Krieger's medical problems began in Saskatchewan in his 20s, when a
series of car accidents, he believes, triggered a genetic predisposition to
multiple sclerosis and caused his muscles to spasm. His legal problems
began shortly after he moved to Calgary a little over a year ago, when the
police knocked on his door looking for someone else and accidentally spied
a healthy crop of marijuana. Charged with cultivation and distribution of
marijuana (allegedly to other ill people), Krieger briefly went to prison
last summer over a parole violation, walking into jail and going out in a
wheelchair after 16 days without his medicinal herb. In April, his trial
begins in Calgary's Court of Queen's Bench, where Krieger's lawyer, Adriano
Iovinelli, will argue the Charter of Rights was violated in denying his
client the freedom to heal himself.

"I'm not interested in the recreational use of pot. I'm interested in one
thing - quality of life. And I'm being denied it," Krieger, who isn't
content to quietly smoke his pot away from the public and legal spotlight.
"I used to walk the straight and narrow. I raised three good kids. But I'm
now being forced to go on the street and support an elicit activity by
buying marijuana from a dealer."

He's also not content to just win his case and join two other Canadians who
have been granted the right to use marijuana medicinally. He wants that
right guaranteed for any Canadian who chooses to use the substance to help
manage their disease, whether it's multiple sclerosis, cancer or AIDS.
Already, he's advising others on various ways of ingesting marijuana. such
as baking it in a brownie. "It's nothing more than a herbal remedy," he says.

Krieger sees himself following in the footsteps of abortionist Henry
Morgentaler in the fight for freedom of choice. Eventually, he'd like to
help set up an alternative health care system in Canada where, say, an
herbalist could write a prescription for cannabis.

The legal battle over his rights has taken its financial toll. His wife
declared bankruptcy and Krieger must get by on his $774-a-month Canada
Pension Plan disability cheque. (He hasn't been able to work since 1991; he
was previously a sales rep for a food company.) Asked if the strain is
worth it, he replies: "My family saw how I was before [marijuana] and they
can see how I am now. The legal costs," he adds, "are a lot better
investment than the $2000 a year he used to spend on pharmaceuticals that
just made him sicker. And he's prepared to go all the way to the Supreme
Court, if necessary.

"I am going to win, he says. `I'm not going to be taken down on this. I've
learned my body well enough that I can't be kept down anymore."

[snip]