WHO ARE SASKATCHEWAN'S MEDICINAL MARIJUANA USERS?

Health Canada data shows just 120 Saskatchewan people applied to use
marijuana medicinally in the six years after the agency allowed the exemption.

After a protracted battle, the agency granted a Postmedia access to
information request for records of Canadians who have applied to use
the drug medicinally, including their age, gender, and approximately
where they live, what condition they use the drug for, the specialty
of the prescribing doctor, how much marijuana they are allowed to
possess, and more. Postmedia is currently trying to gain access to the
remainder of the database, which includes applications received
between 2007 and 2011.

Of the 120 people with Saskatchewan postal codes who had applied by
mid-2007, records indicate 87 were issued licenses, five applications
were still being processed, and 24 were sent back asking for more
information. About a sixth of the Saskatchewan records provided were
missing most of the information, with fields like application status,
dosage, and prescribing doctor listed as "unknown."

When conventional medicine fails

The numbers are no surprise to Jason Hiltz, a medicinal marijuana
advocate in Saskatoon who received an exemption in 2008 to grow the
plants and take the drug. Two car crashes in 2005 and 2006 left him
with a fractured vertebrae and spinal stenosis, which compresses his
spinal cord, causing pain and weakness in his neck, shoulder and left arm.

Conventional pain medicines - he tried many - left Hiltz a stoned
zombie who was constantly dashing to the bathroom to vomit. He was
forced to close down his horticulture business.

"Any time I heard about medicinal marijuana, I was a skeptic," Hiltz,
45, said. "It's a hippie looking for a free ride."

But with a friend's prompting, he tried it. His quality of life was so
poor, he felt he had nothing to lose. After smoking a joint and
sleeping it off, Hiltz said he felt better than he had in two years.
He would spend the next two years trying to find a doctor to prescribe
him the one drug he says dulled his pain and calmed his spasms while
leaving his mind lucid.

Finding a doctor willing to sign that script is a bottleneck, Hiltz
said, and it's the reason more people who want to use it medicinally
have failed to successfully get an application together.

When Hiltz did find a doctor willing to prescribe cannabis, the
physician said he would do it only "on the premise I tell nobody who
my doctor is."

Health Canada's database indicates the specialty of the doctors
prescribing marijuana. In Saskatchewan, 35 applications were signed by
general practitioners, 24 by neurologists, and 14 by neurosurgeons.
Other authorizing doctors include internists, physical medicine and
rehabilitation specialists, obstetrician/gynecologists, internal
medicine/infectious disease specialists, and many listed as "unknown."

The most common reasons given for prescribing the marijuana in
Saskatchewan were spinal cord injury (20 cases), multiple sclerosis
(17 cases), and severe arthritis (13 cases). Also on the list are
HIV/AIDS, various types of chronic pain, cancer, fibromyalgia, and
people with multiple, complex conditions.

The oldest Saskatchewan person who applied by 2007 is now a
79-year-old man, and the youngest is a 30-year-old man with epilepsy.
Seventy-eight per cent of applicants were male, and just 22 per cent
were women.

Of the applicants who were approved to use marijuana medicinally, most
were authorized to grow their own or appoint a designate to grow it for them.

To grow, or not to grow

Hiltz is authorized to grow 20 marijuana plants, which he cultivates
at an undisclosed location. There's a risk for any legally-entitled
grower to become the target of break-ins or violence, he says. It's a
risk he takes because the cost of growing his own is a fraction of the
$5-a-gram price tag on Health Canada's pot, and he says the quality is better.

Tim Selenski, who runs Regina's Head to Head Shop, has spent the past
eight years cultivating extensive knowledge of the bureaucracy of
medical marijuana. He now uses that expertise to run a consultancy
service, called the Green Canvas, that helps people apply to obtain
the drug legally, and hook them up with a safe, high-quality supply if
they are approved. He reckons he's helped at least 500 people across
Canada apply during the past couple of years, and thinks the number of
applicants Health Canada is reporting is likely an underestimate.

"A lot of people think they can't get (a licence), and that's
incorrect," Selenski said. " ... You just have to know how to apply."

He says he's had success connecting with doctors willing to prescribe
marijuana by understanding the law, and framing patients' cases in a
way that convinces them the drug will do more good than harm. The
forms must be filled out perfectly, and doctors will expect to be
compensated for their time. Clients should tell their doctors they
plan to vaporize or eat the marijuana, which are less harmful than
smoking it, he says.

Some physicians realize providing patients access to marijuana legally
is safer than patients turning to the black market out of desperation, he says.

"Nobody in the country does what I do. There are lots of people who
help people get licensed for marijuana, yes. Are as many as successful
as me? I've never met anybody."

The database shows more applications have come from the Regina area
than Saskatoon (24 versus 15) and Selenski wonders if that's due to
his activism.

Selenski is licensed to grow marijuana for two users, and he also
teaches people how to set up their own cultivations. For people not
able to grow their own, Selenski says he contracts out the work to
farmers for a generous sum, teaches them how to grow the crop, and
receives any extra crop back as a donation for needy clients. It's all
legal, he says.

"What I do is extremely controversial," he acknowledges.

Wait a deterrent

Although Selenski may have decoded the bureaucracy, one roadblock he
can't control is the waiting period between application and approval.

He's heard of some waiting two years before their applications were approved.

And to a person in pain, months is too long to wait, Hiltz says. For
someone terminally ill, there's no point applying at all, Hiltz says,
because the legal stamp of approval may come too late.

Both men say they hope for a day when the plant's use is legal for everyone.

Until that happens, Selenski would like to see all marijuana users apply.

"It's an opportunity the federal government has given us," he says.
"Mr. (Stephen) Harper does not want you to get this licence. They
would love to just scrap the program. If that happens, there's' going
to be a lot of suffering people again."