POT COOKIES A RIGHT - CON

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 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."

He received approval for cannabis therapy from Health Canada in August 2001.
Last July, he received a medical marijuana exemption from Ottawa, allowing
him to possess up to 150 grams of pot at any time.