Free at Last - or Is He?

MEDICAL POT ADVOCATE SAYS JAIL CONDITIONS CAUSE OF HIS HEPATITIS C

All Michael Patriquen wants is a little rest and relaxation. But
battling serious ailments, he may never get it.

After spending the past 18 months in a New Brunswick prison for drug
conspiracy convictions, Mr. Patriquen finally got a taste of freedom
Tuesday when he arrived back in Nova Scotia just days after he was
granted day parole.

Mr. Patriquen, 50, of Middle Sackville began serving a six-year
sentence in September 2002. Since then, he has fought to use his
legally prescribed marijuana in jail for chronic neck pain resulting
from a 1999 car accident.

He's now battling pneumonia, untreated rheumatoid arthritis and
hepatitis C, which he says he contracted in the Springhill Institution
while awaiting his transfer to Westmorland.

"The cell that they put me in the first day in Springhill in the
reception unit was covered in dry blood," a gaunt-looking Mr.
Patriquen said Thursday in an interview.

"There were razor blades there, there were blackened needles, there
was a couple of Coke cans that were ripped in half that were sitting
on the outside and had some black material on the inside, and I was
given absolutely nothing at all to clean that mess up with other than
paper towels and powdered Ajax."

Mr. Patriquen also says he was told he couldn't have gloves or any
other cleaning supplies.

"The mattress was covered in dry blood, the pillow was covered in dry
blood. They (officials) refused to exchange them."

Adamant that he was "clean" and his blood work "perfect" when he went
to prison, Mr. Patriquen says there's an ongoing investigation of his
claim of how he contracted hepatitis six weeks after he arrived at
Springhill.

"I began to become deathly ill and I had no idea what it was at the
time," he said. "It's a lot of joint and muscle pain, loss of
appetite, weight loss, exhaustion and insomnia."

On Thursday, Ed Muise, spokesman for the Correctional Service of
Canada's Atlantic operations, said he could not confirm whether Mr.
Patriquen contracted the disease in prison.

The Correctional Service of Canada operates 52 federal prisons in five
regions.

The service's most recent figures show that as of Dec. 31, 2002, 24.6
per cent (3,241) of federal inmates are infected with hepatitis C,
compared with 0.8 per cent of the Canadian population.

"That's a fairly significant statistic," Mr. Muise said.

Testing for HIV and hepatitis B and C is not compulsory in Canada's
prisons.

The correctional service's program to prevent transmission includes
voluntary testing and immunization, surveillance data on inmates,
education/prevention programs and providing condoms, dental dams,
lubricants, bleach to clean dirty needles and methadone.

There are 12,090 male inmates in Canada's prisons and 390 female
inmates. Another 7,882 men are on parole in the community, as are 411
women.

At five-foot-11, Mr. Patriquen says he went into prison weighing 202
pounds and symptom- and disease-free. He now is 41 pounds lighter.

"I can't say I was in perfect health 18 months ago, but all of the
problems I had were well-controlled," a tired-looking Mr. Patriquen
said.

"I was active. I was working as much as my disability would
allow.

"At present, I really don't know how to describe how I am because I've
never felt like this. But I feel like a ghost, to be quite honest. I
feel like I've aged 15 or 20 years."

Mr. Patriquen, the first federal inmate ever to possess a Health
Canada permit to legally possess and consume marijuana, was not
allowed to have any in jail.

The Correctional Service of Canada, which has the right to ban
cannabis use in federal prisons, said it can't legally buy the drug.

The service's policy on the use of medicinal marijuana is it allows
prescription drugs that contain THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

"Those two medications that we do permit to deal with nausea, loss of
appetite or pain are Marinol and Cesamet, and they're oral pill forms
of THC," Mr. Muise said. "We don't use marijuana per se."

Mr. Patriquen applied to the Federal Court to force the correctional
service to honour his Health Canada exemption. He said Thursday he's
giving up that particular fight but may pursue a negligence lawsuit
against the service.

"There are a lot of legal questions to be answered, and a number of
attorneys are studying the records now," Mr. Patriquen said. "And at
some point in the future, when all of the medical investigation that I
began today is in, and my health is recovered, there will be
litigation in another form.

"I'm presently in no state to spend any time in court. I need some
serious R and R. I'm just on my last legs here."

The husband and father, who uses five grams of marijuana daily, will
spend the coming days getting reacquainted with his wife, Melanie
Stephen Patriquen, an 11-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old son, and
nights at a Dartmouth halfway house.

"It was really a kaleidoscope of emotion," he said of the impact his
incarceration and suffering has had on his family.

"It's been very hard on them, but we're very happy to be reunited and
we will quickly begin to put back pieces of our lives - just
re-establishing the family atmosphere."

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

In a separate case, Mr. Patriquen is awaiting sentencing on proceeds
of crime charges, to which he has pleaded guilty. His wife is awaiting
trial on the same charges.

He also faces tax evasion charges.