MEDICAL MARIJUANA USER STARTS SERVICE

Leslie Johnson wants to help bring medical
marijuana into the mainstream and the first step
is getting users and growers licensed.

The Malakwa resident has begun something of a
grassroots venture in the form of Eagle Valley
Medical Marijuana (EVMM). Johnson, through EVMM,
is offering assistance to anyone who may use or
is considering using medical marijuana, but who
finds the federal licensing process, and the
related paperwork, intimidating. The same goes,
he says, for growers in the Shuswap area whose
product could be legitimately sold to help people
with a variety of medical conditions.

This is just an independent venture to educate
people who are unlicensed, to help them get
licensed; for growers who have the ability and
education to grow, but who aren't growing because
it's illegal =96 to get them designated as legal
growers=85,=94 says Johnson, noting there are many
who are still unaware this avenue is available.

Back East it's been happening since 1999, but
right now you send your paperwork to Ottawa, and
you order your marijuana out of Saskatchewan,
through Prairie Plant Systems. But it takes up to
a couple of weeks to get to you=85 so it's not
readily available and the quality is questionable.=94

Johnson is licensed to grow and use marijuana. He
says it's for chronic pain from a back injury
sustained in an automobile accident 20 years ago.

What happened with me from my car accident is the
bone healed on the inside of the vertebrae so it
rubs on my main spinal cord,=94 Johnson explained.
=93There is no surgery available for it. They just
basically told me I'd have chronic pain for the
rest of my life. They could fry the nerves so you
don't feel so much pain but there=92s only a 50-50 chance it will work.=94

Johnson was taking prescription drugs for the
pain, but these provided no comfort. Instead,
they came with a host of new problems, from
stomach pains (and a resulting ulcer), to weight
loss, sleep disturbances and hallucinations. And
once he discovered the possible side effects of
long-term use, such as liver disease, baldness
and breast development in males, he decided all
of this outweighed the benefits.

As an alternative, someone suggested Johnson try
marijuana. The results were encouraging, but the
laws were not. He says he tried growing his own
in 1994 and, as a result, wound up getting
arrested. Johnson's defence, that he was using
for medical purposes, had no legal backing at the
time. But things have since changed. In 2001,
Canada became the first country to allow the
possession of medical marijuana, and Johnson
navigated his way through the application process
to successfully acquire his licence to grow and use.

Instead of having to rely on product from out of
province, however, Johnson believes British
Columbians should be able to =93provide our own
medicine for each other and support our own
economy.=94 Licensing is key, and his long-term
vision to better help facilitate this process is
to create a compassion club society similar to
what's in Kelowna and Kamloops. Johnson says
there's interest and support for such a thing in
Salmon Arm, and that he's already had preliminary
discussions with both city staff and the RCMP.

For now, however, Johnson is doing all that he
can to help others through Eagle Valley Medical
Marijuana, and welcomes anyone wanting
information or help to get in touch with him,
either through Facebook (under Leslie Johnson),
or by leaving a message with JJ's Hemp Hollow in Salmon Arm at 250-833-141
4.