NOTHING ELUSIVE ABOUT NEED FOR MEDICAL CANNABIS

I would like to respond to the appallingly inaccurate opinion piece in
Thursday's paper entitled, Marijuana Users Seek Elusive Legitimacy, by
stating that there is nothing elusive about the legitimacy of many
members of our community who are federally licensed to possess and
produce medical cannabis.

The only elusive thing for them is a reliable supply of safe,
affordable and effective medical cannabis. The single government
supplier, Prairie Plant Systems, only grows one strain of weak,
irradiated, pulverized cannabis that most people do not want. Even if
they did, they would be ineligible many months of the year due to long
processing delays caused by the embarrassingly understaffed Medical
Marijuana Access Division of Health Canada.

Most Canadian licensed med users have chosen cannabis as a medication
to avoid the often-crippling side effects of prescription drugs and
would disagree with your assertion about the many "dangerous"
chemicals in cannabis.

These chemicals are called cannabinoids. In the '80s, scientists
discovered that the human brain contains cannabinoid receptors. This
led them to conclude that these "dangerous" chemicals play an
important role in all life functions.

That is probably why the United States government was awarded a patent
on cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants in 2003. This was
right around the time that the Canadian Senate Special Committee on
Illegal Drugs released its report on cannabis, in which it stated
unequivocally that the prohibition of cannabis was an abject failure
and recommended reform of Canada's drug laws

The only part of your piece I would agree with is that there is not
enough research being done on the medicinal properties of cannabis.
The Conservative government pulled the rug out from that soon after
they became a minority government.

CARL ANDERSON

Executive Director, Canadian Safe Cannabis Society

Kamloops