NO TAX BREAK FOR MARIJUANA

Woman With MS Can't Believe She Can't Deduct Her $12,000 Pot Bill

A multiple sclerosis sufferer with a legal permit to smoke marijuana wants
to deduct her drugs as a medical expense on her tax return.

"It is a medication," Jane Parker said Tuesday. "I don't do this for fun. I
do this so I can walk, so I can get up in the morning . . . and so I can
sleep at night."

The Lunenburg County woman turned to marijuana a few years ago after her
medically prescribed drugs had little effect on the symptoms. They also
made her sick to her stomach.

"I want a life and (marijuana) allows me to have one," Ms. Parker said. "I
don't hurt anybody and I'm the one that has to pay the exorbitant costs."

Her Health Canada smokers permit allows the 41-year-old mother of seven to
consume up to five grams a day. At $10 a gram, her drug bills stack up
quickly. Last year, she spent $12,000 on marijuana; the year before it was
$14,000. Her only income is a Canada Pension Plan that gives her about $600
a month.

"That's why my husband is working his butt off to pick up the rest of it,"
she said quickly.

"I live in my overdraft, my house is up for sale. How many steps am I away
from bankruptcy?"

This month, Ms. Parker was getting ready to file her tax return and decided
to try to get some of her drug money back.

Because she had no receipts from the street dealers who regularly supply
her with marijuana, she took the necessary steps to swear an affidavit
about her expenses before a commissioner of oaths.

That's when her accountant informed her that the thousands she was hoping
to claim under the medical expense tax credit would not pass the government
test.

A spokesman for the Nova Scotia branch of the Canada Customs and Revenue
Agency agreed.

"The only things that would be eligible are the things that are actually
prescribed by a medical practitioner or dispensed by a pharmacist,"
communications manager Roy Jamieson said Tuesday from his Halifax office.

"If the material comes from other sources, whether it be a health food
store or over the counter (medication) or out on the street, there's no way
to fit them into the criteria."

In Revenue Canada's eyes, medical marijuana is no different from
alternative treatments "like Aspirin, health supplements or vitamins," Mr.
Jamieson said.

"There's quite a long list of them out there . . . and none of those are
eligible either, unless they are actually prescribed."

For Ms. Parker, there's no doubt that marijuana is a more effective pain
medication than the drug cocktail her doctor prescribed years ago.

"I'm not in a wheelchair anymore and I'm not bedridden anymore," she said.

The right to smoke medical marijuana is still so new - it became legal with
a court ruling in the spring of 1999 - that there is no case precedent in
this province.

"To our knowledge, the question hasn't been raised here in Nova Scotia
before," Mr. Jamieson said.

That's no comfort to Ms. Parker.

"I'm tired of banging on doors," she said.

"First, I went after Health Canada for an exemption extension . . . and I
had to go through loops and hoops in order to be allowed to use it without
fear of criminal prosecution."

Now she's fearful that she could face prosecution again because one federal
government department doesn't acknowledge the strides that another
department is making.

"The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," Ms. Parker said.

There could be hope on the horizon, though.

Doctors may prescribe government-grown marijuana from Flin Flon, Man., when
it's ready for consumption.

"I'm only speculating here," Mr. Jamieson said, "but certainly it could
fall within the terms of the medical expense regulations, depending . . .
if I was able to go to a pharmacist or a hospital or my doctor and get it
dispensed."

The list of regulations governing what's eligible for the tax credit is
updated from time to time, he said.

"And certainly the opportunity would always be there for interested
individuals to make representations for changes."

Ms. Parker said it's beyond her means to shell out extra cash to fight for
marijuana's inclusion on the tax credit eligibility list.

"I'm just not going to file my return," she said.

"I'll probably end up in jail with nothing, but this is my fight."