PATIENTS FORCED TO SUFFER AND WAIT

Dear Editor,

Langley RCMP Superintendent Derek Cooke seems unaware of how long and
arduous it is to obtain a license for medical marijuana. It does not
happen overnight.

Some doctors are still reluctant to approve the application.

If the doctor does approve the application, the person then must be
seen by a specialist in the patient's field. That can take many months
for an appointment.

If you are lucky enough to get the specialist to approve the
application, you have to send it off to Health Canada. It takes six to
eight weeks for them to approve and send you a card.

Then you have to get seeds from Health Canada, or marijuana from
Health Canada, or find a grower licensed to grow medical marijuana for
you.

During all that time, the patient is still suffering.

I have no idea how long it takes to cultivate a qual-

ity plant or how to obtain the necessary knowledge to produce a
quality plant, but it takes longer than a patient should suffer.

Why not have a local medical marijuana dispensary where the person
could obtain high-quality medicine to help with the suffering while
all the Health Canada paperwork is accomplished and the plants grow to
maturity?

Also, not all marijuana is the same. Different varieties create
different reactions in every individual. A dispensary could help them
find the right strain, instead of them having to take the time to try
to grow different varieties until they find the one that works for
them.

The dispensary also has edibles, which a lot of patients prefer over
smoking marijuana. There again, the patient could try various edibles
easily to find out what works best.

Getting a medical card from Health Canada is not as simple as it
should/ could be. A dispensary locally could save a lot of unnecessary
pain and suffering for many patients.

It would harm no one and help many.

Lorraine Hubbs

Aldergrove