ACCESS TO POT EASES PAIN AND WORRIES

Federal Sale Of Medical Marijuana An Interim Policy Users, Advocates Push
For A Safe, More Dependable Source

OTTAWA -- Last September, Russell Barth gave a friend $300 to buy him some
marijuana.

Barth hates smoking the stuff, but it soothes his the aches in his knees,
neck and back that worsen in his wheelchair as it jostles along the
sidewalk. Smoked through a small water pipe, pot also calms his anxiety, he
says.

That night in September, Barth's friend never came back with the pot or his
money. His anxiety, however, did return. He could barely sleep or eat for
12 days.

Having to resort to the black market for drugs is one of the reasons why
advocates of medicinal marijuana like Barth, who has fibromyalgia, want
safer access to it.

Yesterday, Health Minister Anne McLellan announced an interim policy that
will allow the sale of marijuana and seeds to people who qualify under the
federal pot program.

The announcement came on the day an Ontario court judge had set as the
deadline for the federal government to come up with regulations for
distributing medical marijuana. The judge ruled Ottawa couldn't logically
give sick people permission to use pot without also providing a legal
source of supply.

The government is appealing the decision, and McLellan hinted that the
interim policy could be scrapped if the government wins the appeal.

"It was never the intention for us to provide product," she said in
Edmonton. "What we wanted to do was ... determine whether there is
medicinal benefit in relation to the use of marijuana."

Staging a protest outside Parliament Hill yesterday, medicinal marijuana
advocates, some of whom were smoking joints and holding plants, said the
government is being hypocritical.

"Appealing the court decision is shameful and something that should be
dropped," said NDP MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East), who sat on a
parliamentary committee on the non-medical use of drugs.

At a press conference, Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chair of a Senate
committee that called for pot to be decriminalized, said the government was
acting in bad faith. "The government doesn't do anything but react. Thank
goodness for the courts."

Organizer Philippe Lucas, who runs the Vancouver Island Compassion Society,
said Ottawa should license groups like his to distribute marijuana.

"We have two systems going on: the legal and ineffective Health Canada
program, and the illegal and clearly effective, highly compassionate
medical cannabis programs done by societies."

Lucas' organization describes itself as a non-profit group that supplies
affordable, medical-grade marijuana to patients throughout Vancouver Island.

Manitoba-based Prairie Plant Systems Inc.- a company currently contracted
by Health Canada to produce marijuana for clinical trials - will supply the
marijuana. A packet of 30 seeds will go for $20, and a 30-gram bag of
marijuana for $150. The prices cover the production and distribution costs,
said Cindy Cripps-Prawak, director-general for the Office of Cannabis
Medical Access.

The drugs will contain 10 per cent THC, marijuana's active ingredient.
Street marijuana concentrations vary from 3 to 16 per cent, Cripps-Prawak said.

There are 582 people currently authorized to possess marijuana for
medicinal reasons, Cripps-Prawak said, and most are licensed to grow. To
qualify, people must meet detailed medical requirements and get the
endorsement of a doctor.

Barth, sitting on the grass of Parliament Hill with his happy-face jar of
marijuana buds, said unless the government can guarantee the pot it
supplies will be high-quality, he'll get it elsewhere.

"I think it's a lie," he said of the program. "It's too little too late,
and it's not enough."