MED MARIJUANA USER DRAWS BATTLE LINES

Marco Renda cooks his pot, he vapourizes it, and when he does not
have access to electricity, he rolls it. But Renda is not a criminal.

He suffers from many ailments, including hepatitis C, severe
arthritis, and IBS, and so Health Canada has given him a medical
marijuana exemption for 26 grams a day.

They've also taken away over 7,000 packs of marijuana seeds he
planned to sell to people like himself.

Coming back from Europe, Renda declared the seeds at Pearson
International Airport, only to have them confiscated by Customs.
Health Canada still won't allow their release, but Renda is prepared
for a fight.

He has started work on a constitutional challenge, something to which
he is no stranger. In 2003, he was one of the plaintiffs in a case
that forced the federal government to start growing medical marijuana.

The federal government must now provide the roughly 2,000 exemptees
in Canada with marijuana, explains Renda.

Because the federal government only offers one strain, however, which
many find ineffective, very few of the exemptees are actually taking
the feds up on it.

About 98 to 99 percent opt for securing their own supply rather than
purchasing the "hybridization of MS-17/338 female plants and the
MS-17/596 male plant" offered by the government.

That's why Renda co-founded the Medical Marijuana Seeds Wholesaler,
which offers far more exotic-sounding varieties like "Nirvana
Special" and "Romulan Island Sweet Skunk."

It's a curious twist, considering that Renda was one of the seven
medical marijuana users that launched the Hitzig v. Canada case that
got the federal government growing weed in Flin Flon, Manitoba in the
first place.

Renda is optimistic about his latest challenge. "I think the judges
are on our side," he said.

His company seems legal - the government has given it a bank
identification number and a GST number so he can import seeds from Amsterdam.

But, constitutional challenges aren't cheap.

"We're looking at major legal fees," said Renda. He explains that
they don't have the money, "but the patients are running out of patience."

He finds that the right marijuana helps with his nausea, which is
clear from his appetite. During a phone interview, he's worried that
the sushi being delivered isn't enough.

Unfortunately for Renda, who is also the publisher and
editor-in-chief of Treating Yourself, a journal of alternative
medicine, he has not yet found a strain of marijuana that helps with his pain.

He believes it may be out there, which is why his magazine is doing
"smoke reports" on the over 1,600 varieties available.

"We're trying to educate one another," said Renda. "The only one who
knows and can talk about it is the patient."

Another med-pot struggle

Renda's seed battle is not the only fight over med-pot currently
taking place in Ontario. Ted Kindos, the owner of a restaurant and
bar in Burlington, was embroiled in a human rights complaint for
asking a medical exemptee not to smoke marijuana outside his establishment.

The exemptee claims he was discriminated against, but Kindos argued
that provincial liquor laws do not permit for the consumption of
controlled substances in licensed bars.

Government Services Minister Ted McMeekin recently wrote a letter to
federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, seeking clarity in the situation.

"I am writing to ask for your assistance in clarifying Health
Canada's policy on the possession and consumption of medical
marijuana and the appropriate circumstances where the product can be
used," wrote McMeekin.

Greg Dennis, spokesperson for the Ministry of Government Services,
said that "it was clear that a business owner like Ted Kindos was
caught between a regulatory rock and a hard place."

"When Health Canada came up with [the rules surrounding medical
marijuana] they just weren't clear on where people could and couldn't
smoke," said Dennis.

"We just need to figure this out, and we will."