LEGALIZED MARIJUANA ADVOCATE INVITED TO SPEAK AT BOSTON CONFERENCE

Burlington resident with multiple sclerosis asked to address
International Association of Women Police

Medical marijuana crusader Alison Myrden plans to speak at an upcoming
police conference in Boston -- if she's able to cross the border.

The local resident and multiple sclerosis sufferer is an outspoken
proponent of the legalization of pot. She is one of a small number of
people in Canada who have the legal right to smoke the drug to help
ease the pain of their disease.

Myrden has been invited to give her views at the 42nd Training
Conference of the International Association of Women Police.

The Sept. 12-16 gathering is organized by a group of current and
former law enforcement members that call themselves Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition (LEAP).

Cannabis activist Myrden could encounter problems at the Canada-U.S.
border.

A press release discussing Myrden's planned trip to Boston states that
she may be prevented from entering the U.S.

While she has a valid Health Canada exemption to possess dried
marijuana, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security does not recognize
the medical certificates.

Therefore, Myrden will likely have to go to America without her pot,
suggested the press release.

The former corrections officer and Children's Aid Society worker is
adamant marijuana has helped control her excruciating pain and enabled
her to walk again.

"The U.S. Congress has declared that marijuana has no medicinal value.
Of course in the past some U.S. states have tried to declare the
mathematical constant pi equal to three. That doesn't make it the
truth," Myrden said in the media release.

"Drug czar John Walters may say that medical marijuana is a fraud but
I would be confined to a wheelchair without it," she said of the
director of the U.S.'s Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"American leaders are isolated against patients as well as world
opinion," added Myrden.