COMPASSION AND COMMON SENSE CAN RESOLVE THIS

Are you having fun in this election campaign yet? Well, I'm not. I
prefer watching the Canucks. And I sometimes ask myself what's the
point of having elections in this ideologically torn province if we
can't seem to sort out simple matters, let alone complex ones like
cap-and-trade and the single transferable vote. I'm talking here
about down-to-earth issues, such as providing housing for
wheelchair-bound, double amputee Marilyn Holsten, who now faces
eviction from her East Vancouver suite for smoking the pot she feels
she needs to ease her pain.

For the past eight years, Holsten has lived in a seven-storey
apartment building run by the Anavets Senior Citizens Housing
Society. It's one where tobacco-smoking is allowed, but some folks in
the 60 suites there obviously don't like the smell of skunk.

And normally I wouldn't blame them. However, the 49-year-old Holsten,
a diabetic who goes for dialysis five times a week at Vancouver
General Hospital, is a single woman with a host of medical problems,
and clearly needs our help.

Certainly, she was having a rough morning when I phoned her
yesterday. She was literally sick with worry about the prospect of
being homeless, especially since B.C. Housing had apparently just
phoned her to tell her she wouldn't be allowed to remain on its waiting list.

She is determined, though, to fight for what she rightly or wrongly
believes in. And she's appealing her eviction notice at a Residential
Tenancy Branch hearing June 9.

"If I don't fight, I could end up homeless," she told me. "And I'm in
a wheelchair with no legs. So it's pretty scary the idea of being
homeless. I mean, if they do that to me, I'm just going to go up to
palliative care and stop dialysis and die. That's my only other option."

Holsten says she's tried using regular painkillers, like oxycontin,
but does not want take anything that makes her "zombie-like."
Instead, she prefers pot, which she gets from places on Commercial
Drive or from friends.

It's a terribly sad story from a middle-aged woman who needs a break
in life in the worst way. As Jodie Emery, the Green Party candidate
for Vancouver-Fraserview, pointed out: "It was really quite a
depressing sight to see."

Emery and her husband, pot activist Marc Emery, had gone to Holsten's
suite Wednesday to deliver a fancy, German-made vaporizer, like one
they have at home. It should eliminate much of the marijuana smell.
And let's hope it works until Holsten can get a special
medical-marijuana permit, which she really ought to have had all along.

Having said all that, there are two sides to this issue. Marijuana
smoking is still illegal in this province. And if, like the Anavets,
you're trying to run a safe, clean apartment complex, you don't want
a bunch of stoners and their drug-trading buddies hanging around your
building. You want peaceful, law-abiding tenants.

Anavets administrative secretary Mary McLeod agrees Holsten's case is
a sad one. She also acknowledges that some tenants in the building
smoke tobacco. But she notes that smoking tobacco isn't against the law.

"She [Holsten] signed a tenancy agreement, and a material term of
that tenancy agreement was that marijuana smoking is not permitted,"
McLeod said, adding neither she or her bosses were prepared to comment further.

Also, smoking marijuana is far from the harmless drug it's cracked up
to be by diehard pot advocates.

Dr. Bill MacEwan, a leading Vancouver psychiatrist, says pot does
have pain-relieving properties. But he points out there is a link
between marijuana and psychosis, and that smoking weed can be unhealthy.

"Smoking marijuana's not benign," he said yesterday. "I mean, people
always overlook the aspect of it that it's smoking, so it's not good
for your lungs. It does have a lot of tar and stuff."

Besides, those who buy pot, whether they care to admit it or not, are
feeding the illegal drug trade and the violence that comes with it.

Let's, however, not get into a ping-pong argument. This is a case of
a struggling British Columbian crying out for help. And I suggest
there is a third way here, namely direct intervention by Victoria.

I couldn't reach Housing Minister Rich Coleman for comment yesterday.
He presumably was far too busy getting re-elected. However, I humbly
suggest he call a meeting with Holsten, Holsten's representative and
an Anavets rep to help sort this problem right away.

This is not a partisan issue. And it shouldn't be allowed to drag on.
Our B.C. government needs to step in here and show we are not just a
province with a bunch of rules and regulations, but one with
compassion and common sense.