OTTAWA TO SELL MARIJUANA TO PATIENTS

Sick Nova Scotians Who Use Pot Says The Rules Don't Go Far Enough

Medical marijuana activists in Nova Scotia are skeptical of Ottawa's
interim plan to sell pot to patients with permission to smoke it to
alleviate pain and other symptoms.

"It's fluff, it's an illusion," Debbie Stultz-Giffin said Wednesday,
clutching a joint and a lighter in the same hand that leans on her cane -
the three tools that help her lead a semblance of a normal life in her
battle with multiple sclerosis.

Wednesday's announcement by Ottawa came on the day an Ontario 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.

Health Canada is appealing the ruling, and Health Minister Anne McLellan
hinted that the sales program could end quickly if her department wins the
appeal.

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

Ms. Stultz-Giffin's group, Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana, and
other advocates who rallied Wednesday in Halifax's Grand Parade scoffed at
the plan.

"They're trying to make themselves look good so they can go back into court
and say, 'We've done something,' " said Ms. Stultz-Giffin, a 45-year-old
mother of four who has been smoking pot since 2000 to treat the muscle
spasms, fatigue and lack of appetite that go with MS.

"They're still leaving chronically ill and dying Canadians out on a limb."

Ms. McLellan said the government will make its supply of marijuana
available to licensed users for $5 a gram or $20 for a bag of 30 seeds. The
marijuana will come from a facility in Manitoba, which is growing it for
research into its medicinal value.

About 500 people now qualify to use pot under the program. But they have
been required to grow their own, designate someone to grow it for them or
get it on the black market.

That was the problem that led the Ontario Court of Justice to declare the
law unconstitutional.

And the plan has other flaws, activists say.

Ms. Stultz-Giffin had a permit to grow the drug, but not the ability, as
her disease leaves her weak.

"I just can't devote half of my days to becoming a horticulturist in order
to grow my medication," she said.

The Bridgetown woman couldn't turn the responsibility over to her husband,
who already has a conviction for growing pot plants for her.

Her current sources, whom she's understandably reluctant to identify, could
face prosecution for supplying her, she said.

And after years of waiting for legal marijuana, patients shouldn't have to
pay for it, said Ms. Stultz-Giffin and Jane Parker, a fellow MS sufferer
and Bridgetown-area resident.

When you're living on a disability pension and need five grams a day to
keep the spasms away, the costs add up, Ms. Parker said.

"Right now, I'm taking handouts, because we're broke. . . . It should be in
my hand - and not at $5 a gram."

The medical marijuana group called on Ms. McLellan to resign Wednesday for
her lack of compassion toward the chronically ill.

What the health minister doesn't seem to understand is that marijuana is
the only real option for many Canadians, Ms. Stultz-Giffin said.

The mix of prescription drugs she used to take made her feel worse than the
disease, she said.

"In my situation, they were no more than legal poison," she said.

"Marijuana gives me quality of life, it gives me dignity, it gets me up in
the morning. . . . For a disabled person with MS, it allows me to lead a
relatively normal life."