MAN WANTS COMPANY TO HELP HIM PAY FOR POT

Firm Liable For Back Pain Caused After Accident, Says Marijuana Party
Founder

Growing pot costs money and Michael Patriquen, who uses it for medical
purposes, wants a Halifax company to help foot the bill.

Mr. Patriquen, founder of Nova Scotia's Marijuana Party, is suing L.M.
Harding Medical Supplies Ltd. and one of its former delivery truck
drivers, Christopher McCormick, for chronic back pain injuries he
suffered in an October 1999 motor vehicle collision.

So as part of his claim for special damages, Mr. Patriquen wants the
defendants to pay for the costs of growing his own marijuana for
medical use, as authorized under a Health Canada permit.

"I was in physiotherapy for a long time and I was under a lot for
medical testing, treatment and interventions, and it was determined
(by doctors and specialists) that cannabis was the best solution for
me other than the narcotics they had been giving me," Mr. Patriquen
said Thursday from his Middle Sackville home.

"So to get away from the narcotics, that was the only sensible
alternative."

Mr. Patriquen said L.M. Harding's insurance company refuses to help
with his physiotherapy costs, "which is certainly impacting on my
quality of life."

"They refuse to help me out with any of my medical expenses
whatsoever. You know, they just keep dragging this to court and pad
their own bills, that's all I can say."

The 2001 case is still pending at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in
Halifax.

In a defence, the company and Mr. McCormick deny negligence and say
that if its vehicle was in a collision with Mr. Patriquen's, there was
insufficient force involved in the impact to cause any injury to him.

They say any alleged injury or condition suffered by Mr. Patriquen
existed before the accident or was caused by events or conditions
unrelated to the collision.

Court documents show that Mr. Patriquen's annual costs for his herb
garden supplies, which include potting soil, nutrients, fungicides and
pesticides, total $920. His annual power costs $2,075.

He is also seeking $345 in costs for gym membership dues and
prescription costs as a result of the accident.

In a April 2002 letter to L.M. Harding's insurance company, Mr.
Patriquen's lawyer, Mark Raftus, says these annual expenses can all be
claimed as medical and rehabilitation expenses under an insurance
policy, given that Mr. Patriquen has been cleared by Health Canada to
use marijuana for medical purposes.

In 2002, Mr. Patriquen was sentenced to six years in prison after he
pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess and traffic marijuana in Nova
Scotia and Newfoundland between 1999 and 2000. He is on full parole.

Mr. Patriquen suffers chronic back pain from the 1999 car accident and
has hepatitis C, which he claims he contracted during his 18-month
stay in prison.

Between the lawsuit and his hepatitis C, Mr. Patriquen says he's in
"pretty rough" shape.

"You never know from one day to the next," he said. "I can feel pretty
good for a couple of weeks and start going to the gym again. I do
something . . . hurt my neck a little and I don't sleep for a few days.

"When I don't sleep, it doesn't take much to get my hep C condition
acting up and then down again."

At Mr. Patriquen's 2002 sentencing, court heard he was responsible for
organizing several large-scale marijuana-growing operations in Nova
Scotia and trafficking in Newfoundland.

On March 15, the defendants in the lawsuit appealed a Supreme Court
judge's refusal to order Mr. Patriquen to hand over to the insurance
company seven boxes of the Crown's disclosure of the RCMP's criminal
investigation in a drug conspiracy case against Mr. Patriquen.

Justice Gerald Moir had ruled that the defendants should look
elsewhere - including in Mr. Patriquen's preliminary inquiry record -
for some of the information because it would be too onerous for his
lawyer to look through all documents before deciding what would be
released.

In a decision released Thursday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal
overturned Justice Moir's ruling and directed Mr. Patriquen to file an
inventory list of documents within six months.

The Appeal Court said the disclosure package could contain documents
highly relevant to the lawsuit but that were not produced at the
preliminary inquiry.

"The only way to find out what the disclosure package contains is to
review it," Chief Justice Michael MacDonald wrote for the Appeal Court.

In January, Mr. Patriquen was fined $258,427 and handed a three-year
sentence for possessing proceeds of crime. That sentence, retroactive
to 2003, is to be served concurrently with a six-year term in the drug
conspiracy case, for which he is on parole.

Mr. Patriquen is appealing to have the fine reduced.

His wife, Melanie Stephen-Patriquen, will be tried in November on
money-laundering and proceeds-of-crime charges.