POT ACTIVIST CLAIMS PRISON INFECTION

Dartmouth - He may be out of prison, but pot activist Michael
Patriquen says his troubles are far from over.

On his first day at the Springhill federal penitentiary, Patriquen
claims he got hepatitis C while trying to clean up a bloodstained
holding cell filled with leftover razors and tattoo needles from a
previous inmate.

For months, he says, he was in pain, losing weight and denied access
to doctors who could diagnose him.

Now that he's out, he plans to eventually sue Corrections Canada over
the conditions he believes led to his infection.

"I'm looking at calling the government to task for what they've done
to my health," Patriquen said yesterday.

Patriquen, 50, was sentenced in September 2002 to six years for
conspiring to traffic pot in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The former
Marijuana Party candidate has a federal exemption to smoke marijuana
for the pain caused by nerve damage from a 1999 accident, but
Corrections Canada wouldn't let him ingest pot in jail.

He was released from prison Tuesday after 21/2 years, and is now
living at a Dartmouth halfway house run by the Salvation Army, which
allows him to take marijuana so long as he does it outside.

Patriquen said by Halloween 2002, he was weak and rapidly losing
weight.

"I was down about 50 pounds and still declining. My joints burned. I
had to have help getting around - I was literally falling down,"
Patriquen said. Protein supplements helped him regain nine pounds, he
said.

"Every day, I was sick and in pain. (Jail is) certainly no place for
someone who's ill."

Hepatitis C can cause cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer and liver
failure. It's passed by contact with infected blood, such as sharing
infected drug or tattoo needles, or using a toothbrush or razor with
infected blood on it, according to the U.S.-based Centers for Disease
Control.

Patriquen said cleaning the holding cell without rubber gloves is the
only way he can think of that he might have picked up the virus.

Correctional Service Canada spokesman Ed Muise said the policy in
prison is for trained cleaners wearing protective gear to clean blood
spills in cells, not to let unprotected inmates do it.

But Muise admitted hepatitis C rates are much higher in prison - 24.6
per cent of federal inmates, or 3,241 individuals, have the disease
compared to 0.8 per cent of the Canadian population.

Patriquen has challenged Ottawa's policy of not allowing medical
marijuana in jail, but he said it's now a "moot point" that he may not
pursue.

He and his wife, Melanie Stephen-Patriquen, plan to fight to have
marijuana decriminalized by joining their local NDP riding
association.