JAILED POT-USER SEEKS INJUNCTION

Man Uses Weed To Dull Pain

A lawyer for Michael Patriquen will appear in a Vancouver court Monday to
seek an emergency injunction allowing his client to use marijuana in prison.

Mr. Patriquen, a Nova Scotia man in Westmorland Institution in New
Brunswick, has a Health Canada exemption allowing him to use marijuana to
treat chronic pain resulting from a 1999 car accident. More conventional
treatments have not helped him.

But Correction Services Canada has not allowed him access to what it
considers a contraband drug since he began serving a six-year sentence for
conspiracy to grow and distribute 4.5 kilograms of marijuana in Sept.2002.
Corrections officials argue there is no legal supply of pot and they are
not willing to go to the black market to get it.

Melanie Stephen Patriquen, Mr. Patriquen's wife, anticipates a regular
hearing in late June.

But British Columbia lawyer John Conroy, a specialist in marijuana and
penal law, will argue Mr. Patriquen's health is deteriorating so rapidly he
needs immediate access.

Mrs. Stephen Patriquen said her husband has dropped from 202 pounds to 149
pounds and has fallen into a "massive state of depression" while his pain
goes untreated.

"He will definitely be dead by the first of September if nothing's done. I
will guarantee you that," she said from her Sackville home on Saturday.

She fears the court proceedings will take much longer.

"The government, we all know as citizens, can stonewall better than any
other organization or group on the planet," she said.

Mrs. Stephen Patriquen noted that Mr. Conroy took 10 years in court
fighting to extend the vote to inmates.

He's asked for two hours Monday to convince a judge to allow Mr. Patriquen
emergency access to marijuana in prison.

Mr. Patriquen won't be present, but his lawyer will present affidavits and
pictures showing his deterioration since he entered prison.

Mr. Conroy will give the judge three options: Health Canada supply the pot,
it be obtained through the Vancouver Compassion Club, or Mr.Patriquen get
some of the illicit marijuana that regularly circulates in prison without
fear of punishment.

Mrs. Stephen Patriquen doesn't expect a judge would accept the last option,
but she has hope they'll see a favorable result.

"I don't think he's just going to say no,"she said.

She is prepared for the judge not to make a decision but instead push the
date of the hearing up. since what's being sought Monday is the same thing
they're seeking in the hearing.

If the judge decides to grant this injunction, she believes her husband
could receive marijuana within days.