OTTAWA PUTS MONKEY ON POT USER'S BACK

You know how it would go if you were into your dealer for five grand.
Here's what happens when your dealer is the Government of Canada:

You remember Jim Meeks. He was one of those who went out with a camera
a while back, taking photos of the places where the homeless sleep.

He did not need a guide. He is familiar with the undersides of
bridges, with ravines and sidewalk grates, and with the granite
interstices between the tall cold buildings of the downtown core.

He now lives in a room near Seaton House. His building is rough, but
his place is snug.

Jim also has a medical marijuana card, the source of his most pressing
problem, and the inspiration for today's column.

He said, "I'm on disability." In fact, his disability is plural. "I
have epilepsy. I have irritable bowel syndrome, and I have back damage
from life on the street, and from beatings."

Yikes.

"The epilepsy? I've had it most of my life, but I haven't had a grand
mal seizure in 20 years." Does he have petit mal seizures? "My kids
say I have them. I sometimes sort of stare off with my mouth open. My
granddaughter calls it 'Grandpa's banjo face.' "

He mugs for me.

She is not wrong.

"My doctor found out I smoked pot, and he did a brain scan. Turns out
I am stable when I have pot. When I don't, I'm not stable."

I said his health problems were multiple. Take a deep breath: He also
has hepatitis C, and he had a quadruple bypass in 2001.

The marijuana helps with the fatigue, the nausea and lack of appetite
that accompany hep C. But who smokes dope after a bypass?

"The doctor said I couldn't quote him, but marijuana has an
antispasmodic agent. He said I just shouldn't smoke tobacco."

Jim was able to get a medical marijuana card. He's had it for a few
years, and orders pot by mail from Saskatchewan. "You send away for it
and they bill you." That beats buying weed on the street.

So what's the problem?

"It isn't covered by OHIP, and I'm on social assistance, so I can't
claim it on my taxes."

Let's do the math:

He uses four grams a day; that's 120 grams a month. Civil service dope
costs five bucks a gram, which means Jim's costs are $600 a month for
a drug prescribed by his doctor to control his seizures and his
spastic colon, and to minimize the fatigue and the loss of appetite
and other ailments.

The cost is not covered, and his income is minimal. He gets $250 a
month from a pension, he earns $100 a month from his volunteer work,
and he gets $480 from his disability pension. His apartment costs $139
a month.

At this stage, he has run up a tab of five grand with Health Canada.
He isn't trying to shirk. "I called them. I said I was on social
assistance. They said they'd make the repayments as low as they could.
I'm sending them $105 a month."

That's money he doesn't have for medicine he needs, and for which he
has a prescription.

Too bad he's not rich.

What now? "I'll have to order less. I have a lot of anxiety over what
will happen."

Here's what I don't get: If he needs the stuff for his health, and if
it is legal and prescribed, why is it not affordable?

You know what I'm going to say now. A dealer would break your legs if
you owed five grand for dope bought on the street.

Health Canada?

They just hamstring you.