CONVICT SEEKS OK TO BE ALLOWED 'MARIJUANA COOKIE AND GLASS OF MILK'

VANCOUVER (CP) - Michael Patriquen may be in a jail cell, but he believes
he still has the right to eat marijuana cookies there to ease the pain of
injuries he suffered in a car accident four years ago.

While Patriquen is in prison in New Brunswick, his case has been taken up
by B.C. lawyer John Conroy, who specializes in marijuana law and prison reform.

Conroy filed an application in federal court here last week seeking to
compel Health Minister Anne McLellan to provide prison officials with an
adequate supply of marijuana for Patriquen's pain relief.

Patriquen, a 49-year-old pot activist who founded the Nova Scotia Marijuana
party, has a Health Canada exemption allowing him to possess marijuana to
alleviate pain from injuries received in a motor vehicle accident four
years ago.

Since September, he has been in the minimum-security Westmorland federal
prison in New Brunswick, serving a six-year sentence for marijuana
trafficking and cultivation.

Patriquen claims his constitutional right to obtain his medicinal marijuana
is being violated by the Correctional Service of Canada, the National
Parole Board and McLellan.

His legal action states he should be released from prison if he is not
provided with medicinal marijuana.

"I am not asking to grow my own cannabis (marijuana) in the institution or
to smoke it ... only to access it as a medicine through health care in the
same fashion as other prisoners access methadone or other more significant
side-effect type medications," says Patriquen's affidavit, filed in federal
court by Conroy.

"He just wants to be able to have a marijuana cookie and a glass of milk,"
said Conroy of his client.

Currently, the government does not provide medicinal marijuana to people
who have exemptions to possess and grow marijuana for treatment of their
pain and illness.

In March, federal Solicitor-General Wayne Easter, commenting on the
Patriquen case, said the government is opposed to the use of medicinal
marijuana in prisons.

"We don't want to go down that route ... if you are in prison you're not
there to smoke marijuana," he said.

Patriquen says in his affidavit, which was obtained by the Vancouver Sun,
that "due to my deteriorating health condition over the past six months, my
life has become a nightmare.

"I am in constant pain 24 hours a day. The only variable is the degree of
pain I suffer that varies from very bad to agonizing."

Patriquen said he suffers from nausea, is getting weak and has lost about
20 kilograms since he was sent to prison Sept. 10.