'I DON'T WANT TO BE OUT ON THE STREETS'

Woman With 'Ghost Pains' Needs Marijuana For Pain Control

A double amputee is being evicted from her Vancouver apartment at the
end of the month for smoking medicinal pot.

"I'm really scared," said Marilyn Holsten, 49. "I don't want to be
out on the streets. I don't have anywhere to go."

Holsten, a diabetic who is also losing sight in her right eye, has
lived for eight years in a building run by the non-profit Anavets
Senior Citizens' Housing Society.

"I get these terrible ghost pains," she said. "Doctors say there's
nothing that'll work for it, so the only thing they suggested was to try pot."

When she started smoking pot -- about a gram a day -- she gave a note
from her doctor to the society that runs the building on East 8th Avenue.

She got her first eviction notice in April 2008. In order to stay,
she signed a document promising to light up outdoors only.

"I was exhausted. I didn't have time to fight," said Holsten.

Last month, she received her second eviction notice after management
said the smell of marijuana from her suite was wafting into public areas.

Holsten said she tries to smoke outside, but admits she smokes in her
room when she wakes up in pain in the middle of the night.

She does her best to diffuse the smell, she said -- keeping her
window open, using a fan and sprays.

Holsten's physician, Dr. Fraser Norrie, supports her pot use.

"I agree with this medical treatment," he wrote in a letter to the
housing society. "I would ask you to accept her medical needs,
including her need to smoke marijuana."

But the doctor's note wasn't enough for building management.

"While your doctor supports your decision to use marijuana, he has
not prescribed it for medicinal purposes," society administrator Mary
McLeod wrote in a letter to Holsten dated April 24.

"Marijuana use is still against the law and . . . [as] part of your
tenancy agreement, you agreed you would not participate in illegal activities."

Anavets refused an interview request.

Holsten said she does not have the Health Canada authorization to
possess pot. She had considered applying last year, but was daunted
by the paperwork. "I've had a lot of health stuff going on," she
said. "I was really trying, but it's a lot of work."

Jason Gratl, vice-president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association,
said a person should not be evicted unless their behaviour
unreasonably interferes with the landlord's and neighbouring tenants' rights.

"I doubt smoking medicinal marijuana constitutes an unreasonable
interference sufficient to justify evicting a double amputee."

Jay Leung, spokesman for the B.C. Compassion Club, said the right of
the ill to have access to medicinal pot without fear of prosecution
has been established as a constitutional right "but this is not yet
reflected in tenancy law."

He called the federal marijuana-access program a "half-hearted
attempt," with authorizations granted to fewer than 3,000 people
across Canada in the past eight years.

The 5,000 members of the Compassion Club, which has been operating on
Commercial Drive since 1997, are in a grey area, said Leung.

"Members are not protected legally, but morally they are, because
society recognizes there is a medicinal purpose for its use."

Holsten remains on the B.C. Housing wait list and said she has no
objections to moving if she can get a wheelchair-accessible suite or
an assisted-living unit elsewhere.

"It's very stressful," she said. "I don't know what's going to
happen. Maybe I should feel lucky it's summer. At least, if I'm on
the streets, it's not winter yet."