EASING PAIN WITH MARIJUANA

I had the privilege to offer some temporary help in the form of cannabis
and kind words to a person suffering from terminal cancer. Not a miracle
cure or a drug that leads to further suffering -- just some relief to a
person in a great deal of pain who chose not to be delirious from morphine.

The heartfelt gratitude expressed by the family is difficult to describe in
a letter.

Technically, if a police officer had walked into the room at the time, the
ill person and I would have been subject to arrest and possible incarceration.

Some offences could draw five years: cookies, for example. Health Canada
has always maintained that one of the reasons for discouraging cannabis use
is that it's often smoked, which may not be good for us.

Yet, if I want to make some cookies or any other product out of my cannabis
I am again subject to arrest and incarceration for manufacturing drugs.
Does this make sense to anyone? Certainly not to me, and if one of our
astute policy-makers had been with me in that sickroom I'm certain they
would agree that something has got to change.

The current laws not only don't make sense to any thinking person, they
also serve to deny very needed help to the most vulnerable of our society.

James Luker,

Shawnigan Lake.