POT CRUSADE BURNING ISSUE

Grant Krieger Doesn't Seem To Be Profiting From Selling Marijuana To Ease Pain

It's easy to question the motives of medical pot crusader Grant Krieger.

After all, the Calgary man wants to be able to grow marijuana, an illicit
cash crop, with impunity - for his own use and that of others of his ilk.

In the process, Krieger has flouted the laws of Canada and apparently
distributed his illegal crop to dozens of other people. Krieger's scofflaw
methods are not unique in the annals of history.

From Mahatma Ghandhi, to Martin Luther King Jr., to the anonymous Chinese
student in Tiananmen Square who stared down a tank, civil disobedience has
long been used to challenge laws and lawmakers.

But not everyone has ignored the legislation of the day simply for the
betterment of mankind.

There have been those whose insubordination has had a profitable
side-effect as well.

U.S. suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian may, or may not, be right that
some people deserve the opportunity to have others assist them in taking
their own lives. But in the process of challenging the law, Kevorkian
managed to carve out a niche for himself in the medical community - getting
paid for a procedure few were performing - before being thrown in prison.

The same could be said for Canada's Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who successfully
defeated our nation's abortion laws through his own civil disobedience.

Morgentaler risked his own liberty to establish abortion clinics when they
were prohibited by law, but when the Supreme Court overturned the
legislation, he was already comfortably entrenched in a blossoming
industry. Even Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer could not have had more
than the pain and suffering of his daughter Tracey in mind when he took her
life.

It has only been since then that he has taken up the cause of legalized
euthanasia, while living under the spectre of a minimum 10 years in prison.

So Krieger's rebellious behaviour - his self-imposed martyrdom - not
surprisingly raises eyebrows among the naysayers and doubters.

After all, selling pot has a much greater potential profit margin than,
say, life-taking.

But Krieger doesn't seem to have an ulterior motive to his crusade. Whether
placebo, or miracle cure, he clearly benefits from the medicinal benefits
of marijuana in combating his debilitating multiple sclerosis.

And while Krieger could get a personal parliamentary exemption to grow pot
- - as two other Canadians have - his fight would only be half done, says his
lawyer. Adriano Iovinelli said many of his client's beneficiaries - from
AIDS sufferers, to cancer victims - would prefer to avoid a public plea to
the nation's elected representatives for help.

Instead, they appreciate the anonymity of getting pot from Krieger's
Universal Compassion Club - the same protection of identity patients get
when receiving medication from their physicians.

The federal government is looking into the issue of the medical uses of
marijuana. But while our politicians fiddle like Nero, many Canadians
suffer the burning pains of their illnesses - perhaps needlessly.