'DOPE' IS MEDICINE

Re: Dope activist spared jail time (Dec. 22). First, the headline does no
good for anyone. I expect headlines like that from the other paper. Please
try to understand, for people suffering debilitating diseases, it is not
dope, it is medicine.

Like Grant Krieger, I have multiple sclerosis. My type is called
primary progressive and there is no treatment or drugs available to
halt it or alleviate the pain. The only relief I get is from the
cannabis I buy from a compassionate club. My doctor will not sign the
forms to buy marijuana from the federal government. I am told it is
crap anyway, so my feeling is good riddance to it and the federal
program. I have never had the feeling that anyone in Ottawa really
cared about my situation anyway.

What I do is technically illegal. I know that. It is all I have. My
MPs do not respond in any serious way when I write to ask them to
leave the cannabis laws alone for MS and cancer patients. They feel
that drugs in general all fall into the same category, so they are
moving to toughen up laws for users and sellers. I still don't know
what effect that will have on my situation. My pain goes on day after
day, month after month while I wait for answers from Ottawa.

People like Krieger are saints in my book. Doing for me and others
like me what no politician has ever cared to even discuss with me. If
the laws drive it back underground I will have to go out on the street
in my wheelchair to buy from the criminals again. That's progress,
eh?

FREDERICK (RICK) KEEP

Winnipeg