PATIENT SUES FOR ACCESS TO MARIJUANA

A Toronto AIDS victim is preparing to sue the federal government for not
allowing him to smoke marijuana – and for not supplying him with the drug
in the first place.

"The Parker ruling was a foot in the door, not a solution," said Jim
Wakefield of Wednesday’s landmark legal decision, in which an Ontario
justice ruled that medicinal use of marijuana is legal.

Mr. Wakeford, 53, wants the government to protect his right to smoke
marijuana. He also wants the government to grow the drug and provide it
through prescriptions so he doesn’t have to purchase it on the black market
where, he said, "it can be laced with who knows what."

As soon as he can raise the money to cover his court fees, which his lawyer
estimates will be between $20,000 and $50,000, Mr. Wakeford intends to
launch a constitutional challenge in the General Division of the Ontario
Court of Justice. So far, Mr. Wakeford has received $500 from
Torontobased AIDS Action Now, of which he is a member.

"We want the court to grant a declaration ordering that patients suffering
with AIDS be entitled to possess and consume marijuana upon the
recommendation of their personal physician," said Mr. Wakeford, who was
diagnosed with AIDS in 1989 and smokes one or two joints a day to control
nausea and other sideeffects of his medications.

"The declaration would include an order that the Government of Canada
supply the marijuana through the experimental farm in Ottawa," he said.

Mr. Wakeford’s lawyer, Alan Young – who is also defending multiple
sclerosis patient Lynn Harichy in a medical marijuana case in London, Ont.
– said this week’s Ontario Court decision probably will not help other
patients like Mr. Wakeford, because it does not bind higher courts and
because it does not say how patients would be protected from arrest and
prosecution. And he emphasized that the court’s ruling did not address the
issue of access to marijuana.

"The government is saying to AIDS patients: ‘We know you can barely get out
of bed in the morning, but if you want marijuana, you’re going to have to
find it yourself," said Mr. Young. "If the doctor says that you need
marijuana, we think the government should be able to fill the prescription."

Ironically, this week’s ruling is posing a new obstacle to Mr. Wakeford’s
fundraising attempts.

The charitable foundations Mr. Wakeford is approaching for financial
support must choose between donating money to his court case, or saving it
to use in the event that Judge Sheppard’s decision is appealed.

"We are in a tough spot," said Russell Armstrong, executive director of the
Ottawabased Canadian AIDS Society. "We support the legalization of
marijuana as a treatment, but we don’t have a lot of money to fight issues
in court, and we have to choose where to invest."

Mr. Wakeford is launching the suit on his personal initiative – out of
frustration with what he considers the slow pace of government action on
the issue.