COMPASSION CLUB

For Matt Thornton, cannabis helps him live.

Without it, he would be bedridden with Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia
and autism.

For Dave Hudson, who suffers severe migraines several times a month
and last for days at a time, cannabis saved his life.

"I can say without fail that if I did not have access to cannabis I
wouldn't be here. I would have killed myself years ago," Hudson says.
"It's a harsh reality to look at."

He can't work regularly, and at times can barely look after his three boys.

"The pain is so intense, the only thing that gives me relief is illegal."

The legality of medicinal cannabis is again in a grey area after an
Ontario Superior Court decision that ruled Health Canada's medical
marijuana program is unconstitutional and denies legal access to sick
people who need the drug.

The federal government has about 50 days left to appeal that decision
but in the meantime medical marijuana proponents at the Kingston
Compassion Club Society, including Thornton and Hudson, have set up
an office to provide high-quality marijuana to patients who qualify to use it.

The society is a members-only facility, and membership is only
available to people registered with Health Canada's Medical Marijuana
Access Regulations (MMAR) or who have been referred by a physician.

According to Health Canada, people can obtain MMAR status if they
suffer severe pain from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or
disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS infection, severe forms of arthritis or epilepsy.

About 10,000 people across Canada are part of the MMAR program,
including about 1,000 registered growers.

Similar programs operate in California and Arizona.

The compassion club provides high-quality marijuana and offers
patients instruction and counselling on its use for medicinal purposes.

The club gets its cannabis from growers licensed under the MMAR. The
drugs are tested to determine their exact chemical makeup and
different strains are used to treat different illnesses.

The growers are confident enough to promise the club that the
chemical makeup of each plant will be consistent.

"We have possibly the best cultivators in the country working for us.
We are raising the bar for compassion clubs across the country," Thornton says.

"We're not just a storefront opening up and selling pot to people," he says.

"We're actually doing research, we're doing science, we're providing
much more than dry cannabis."

Since opening last week, the Kingston club has registered more than
300 patients and Thornton says he expects more than 2,000 people to
be registered once the club is fully up and running.

Last month's court case centred around a man who had to go through 17
doctors before he found one willing to recommend marijuana.

Many doctors in Canada are hesitant to recommend cannabis because of
the liabilities that go along with directing patients to find
marijuana on the street.

Doctors in Kingston willing to recommend patients to the club must
fill out a three-page referral form and the information is confirmed
over the phone to prevent fraud.

"This doesn't help a 55-year-old woman with MS, who lives in the
suburbs and hasn't even come close to seeing a joint or marijuana in
any shape or form," Hudson says.

"What is she supposed to do? Go an ask teenagers?"

The compassion club is located on the top floor of the Princess
Street Medical Arts Building.

Being in a medical building helps add legitimacy to medical cannabis,
says Thornton, adding it has also prompted more discussion about the
drug's use as medicine.

Hudson says there have been 5,000 studies on marijuana and he says
the majority show a benefit for severely ill patients.

"I don't think there is anyone who hasn't been touched by cancer," Hudson says.

"If someone can't eat and nothing is working for them, there's going
to be someone who says 'Hey, have you ever tried cannabis, because it
gives you the munchies,' " he adds.

While how they use the cannabis is up to the patient, the compassion
club is trying to promote a non-smoking policy, where patients use
vaporizers to inhale fumes from heated marijuana, or eat the plant in
baked goods.

The club directors -- half of whom are part of the MMAR program --
eventually want to expand into cannabis science, and one of the first
things they want to do is provide data to researchers so they can
examine the effect taking the plant has on other prescriptions.

The club is partnered with the Canadian Institute of Health
Researchers, the International Cannabinoid Research Society and the
International Association for Cannabis as Medicine.

It is planned that the club will be able to do its own testing with
the future addition of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry equipment.

While the club's staff has more than 100 years of combined experience
with cannabis, it relies on a panel of advisers to doctors and
researchers to provide formal medical advice.

Kingston police have said they are aware of the compassion club and
say they don't have any big concerns about it opening.

Thornton did say the one thing police warned them about was security.

Preventing robbery or theft is a priority. The club is locked all the
times, with patients being let in by appointment only and the supply
of cannabis is stored in a safe.

The compassion club has committed to donate 75% of any profit to
local charities including Martha's Table and HIV/AIDS Regional
Services and other groups.

All that goodwill, however, may be for naught should the government
decide to appeal last month's court decision or abolish the MMAR
program altogether, which Thornton says loses money each year.

"Trust the Canadian government to lose money selling pot," he says.

A change in the law and being shut down are threats compassion club
members are well aware of and it's a constant source of frustration.

"I can go to the liquor store a fill up a big shopping cart of booze
and take that home, nobody cares, nobody's checking. I don't have to
get permission from the government to do that," Hudson says.