NANAIMO ADVOCATE EYES ONTARIO MARIJUANA RULING

A recent Ontario superior court ruling against the federal
government's medical marijuana regulations has a licensed medical
marijuana user in Nanaimo wondering where she and other patients
across Canada stand legally.

Pam Edgar, host producer of CHLY Radio program Living Health, is a
medical marijuana advocate. She is also a patient who uses the drug to
control chronic pain from nerve and bone damage to her left leg from a
motorcycle accident in 1975 and muscle spasms triggered by multiple
sclerosis, which she was diagnosed with in 1988.

The Ontario superior court tossed out the federal government's
regulations on medical marijuana access in a ruling, brought down
April 12, from a constitutional challenge by Matthew Mernaugh, a
patient in Ontario who uses the drug to alleviate symptoms from
several medical conditions.

The court found the government regulations, which only allow patients
to go through allopathic physicians to access medical marijuana, made
obtaining it too restrictive and difficult to legally acquire it.

The ruling effectively struck down sections 4 and 7 of the Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act prohibiting possession and production of
marijuana, and left the government 90 days to legislate new
regulations or get an extension beyond the July 12 deadline.

The situation leaves the door open for removal of cannabis prohibition
in Canada, which Edgar and other advocates hope will be replaced by a
controlled and regulated system of medicinal marijuana production and
access.

Edgar said results from recent scientific research support medical
marijuana users' claims it helps alleviate symptoms from a variety of
diseases.

"And then our government is going to say, nope, you can't have that or
you can only get it through us - or you can only get it through us
when you follow our system and when you follow our system you can only
use it the way that we're going to prescribe you do?" she asked.
"That's not good."

Edgar said the same controls and regulations pharmacies already apply
when they dispense drugs to ensure those drugs are used responsibly
should apply to medical marijuana. She added it also should be grown
tailored to its medicinal qualities instead of for its psychoactive
properties as illegal growers do now, which she said is an
irresponsible abuse of the drug.

But some of marijuana's side effects, such as increased appetite, are
desirable for certain patients.

Many pharmaceuticals have negative and, in some cases, dire side
effects. A synthesized marijuana derivative she agreed to try at one
point impaired her ability to think clearly.

"It turns me into an absolute goof," she said. "I cannot handle the
side effects."

Edgar said she and a few other licensed patients in Nanaimo grow their
own marijuana in a specific location, which allows them to control its
quality and avoid using synthetic drugs.

Getting licensed to grow and possess marijuana has its
complications.

Edgar must renew the licence annually, which includes providing a
photograph of herself and extensive personal information, and the time
from when she makes the application to receiving the licence can take
several months.

In 2010, when her licence was scheduled to expire in August, she
submitted her licence renewal in May, but did not receive her new
licence until November. The delay left her in a form of legal limbo
for months. Following the rules, though, allows her to maintain her
status as a legitimate medical marijuana user and advocate.

Edgar has always been forthright with her doctors - even 20 years ago
when such conversations were not broached easily with the those in the
medical profession - about choosing marijuana over
pharmaceuticals.

"They could have said, 'You know what? I don't want to be your
doctor,'" she said. "Fortunately, we had a really good relationship
and they supported me - not necessarily agreed, but they supported me.
Twenty years later I'm now getting pats on the head."

The ultimate decriminalization of marijuana for medicinal use in
Canada would be desirable, but she admits many political and economic
hurdles stand in the way.

"It's gotten away from the compassion and the treatment and care of
the patient and its gotten down to politics and economics," she said.