POT-BATTLE DOUBLE-AMPUTEE MARILYN HOLSTEN LOSES HER LAST FIGHT

Heart Attack Fells Woman Who Contested Eviction for Smoking Pot

Marilyn Holsten's last days on Earth were a living hell, according to
her sister, Moira O'Neill.

In frail health, the almost-blind, diabetic double-amputee was
ordered evicted from her apartment because of her need to smoke
marijuana to control her pain.

Holsten, 48, died earlier this month from a heart attack.

"For a whole year, it went on. It was an unbelievable way to treat
someone in her health," said O'Neill.

Holsten lived in a building operated by Anavets Senior Citizens
Housing Society in the 900-block East 8th Avenue in Vancouver.

Many of her neighbours told her they did not smell marijuana coming
from her apartment, her sister said. But, even though Holsten
eventually obtained legal permission to smoke marijuana to deal with
excruciating phantom pains, Anavets sought her eviction because of
the smell of pot.

"It was a witcRating 2 unt," said O'Neill, who said her sister had to
move from her fifth-floor apartment to a ground-floor suite two years
ago, after her first leg amputation, for her own safety.

"They knew she smoked marijuana before she moved down to the other
suite," said O'Neill.

"She was in the hospital most of the time, with her amputation -- she
was gone five days a week, in dialysis six hours a day."

Holsten fought her eviction at a B.C. Residential Tenancy Branch
arbitration hearing in June, but lost.

The night before she died, Holsten visited her older sister.

"We resolved that she was going to stay with me in my small
one-bedroom apartment," said O'Neill.

"She couldn't take opiates, they made her totally unable to function.
Morphine made her throw up, and she was a diabetic, so she had to eat
all the time."

O'Neill said her sister "yelled and screamed before she died," but
help came too late to save her.

"It's pretty unjust, what happened. She was a fighter," said O'Neill,
who picked up her sister's ashes Tuesday.

"She was extremely independent all her life."

O'Neill says her sister was also "a beautiful person" who loved life
and her three parrots.

"She had an art project she was working on. She had plans to continue
her education. She was an inspirational person," said O'Neill.

"I'm missing her, but I know she's got her toes back and is wiggling
them in heaven."