ILL CANADIANS RALLY FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM

Halifax March on Saturday One of Hundreds Worldwide

Medical marijuana patients and advocates, cannabis consumers and
freedom supporters, will rally in the Halifax North Commons from 1 to
4 p.m., May 5, to mark the annual Global Marijuana March as we join
over 200 cities worldwide to seek changes to current cannabis laws.

Last month Canadians learned about Health Canada gouging critically
and chronically ill Canadians a whopping 1,500 per cent markup for
medicinal marijuana.

Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana Society (MUMM) is a registered
non-profit organization that educates others about the safety of
medical marijuana while advocating and lobbying for the rights of
consumers, distributors and producers of medical marijuana.

MUMM will be calling for the federal government to:

1) immediately forgive the $143,000 of debt owed to Health Canada by
cancer patients, people living with HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C sufferers
and others who are unable to pay for their medicine. Thanks to
Canadian taxpayers, this medicine has already been paid for from the
government coffers and now ill people are being forced to chose
between medicine and food in order to survive while being asked to
pay for the cannabis again at a highly inflated rate.

2) begin meeting with provincial health authorities to insure that
costs are covered for medical cannabis, whether the medicine comes
from Health Canada, designated growers, compassion societies or is
produced by the patient. Most Exemption Holders live on lower, fixed
incomes and medical marijuana is essential for their overall daily
state of health and well being.

3) allow for easier access to the Medical Marijuana program for
patients who require medical cannabis to treat the symptoms of
chronic diseases and conditions. Currently, the Medical Marijuana
Access Regulations only protect 1,700 of the estimated one million
gravely ill Canadians relying on medical cannabis. Those patients
unable to obtain exemptions are subject to being arrested, charged
and potentially convicted.

4) legalize and legitimize Canadian Compassion Clubs immediately. A
survey by the Canadian AIDS Society in 2006, determined that Canadian
compassion clubs provide medicine to over 10,000 people in Canada.
Health Canada should work with compassion clubs to approve a
regulatory scheme for community-based access to medical cannabis so
that clubs may continue to operate, but without the fear of being prosecuted.

5) promise to leave Personal-Use Production Licences and
Designated-Person Production Licences intact after 2007. The recent
press release noted that Health Canada is moving toward removing
patients preferred methods of obtaining medicinal marijuana. Two
thirds of Exemptees either grow their own medicine or opt to have an
individual designated to grow it for them. Health Canada is
contemplating forcing all exemptees to buy their expensive,
ineffective medicine. Exemptees need access to many strains of safe,
legal and affordable medicine.

6) conduct a financial/performance audit of the federal medical
marijuana program. NDP MP Libby Davies, Senator Pierre-Claude Nolin
and the Canadian AIDS Society have pointed out that a long overdue
audit of the Medical Marijuana Department is crucial.

The unconscionable inflationary rate applied to government grown
cannabis was discovered when Canadians for Safe Access, a national
medical marijuana advocacy group, filed an Access to Information Act
requesting a copy of the production contract between Health Canada
and Prairie Plant Systems.