LEGAL GRASS ADVOCATES SHARE IN BITTER HARVEST

Man Grows Marijuana For Friends Who Need The Weed To Feel Better

DUNDALK -- It's Saturday morning and a small group of people, despite their
serious illnesses, have gathered in a country mansion to help its owner
harvest his crop. The seven work diligently, pausing occasionally only to
step out to the wraparound deck and smoke marijuana cigarettes. The
marijuana, which they all consider medicine, has allowed most of them to
venture this morning to the 6,000-square-foot Dundalk-area home of Marco
Renda, who has become something of an activist. The crop this day is
medical-grade marijuana.

Several plants have just been brought in from the field, but the people
gathered in Renda's living room are clipping plants which have been drying
inside. The mood is festive and friendly.

The people here are devoted to seeing marijuana at least decriminalized,
preferably legalized. Renda, 42, who has battled Hepatitis C for two
decades, grows marijuana for his own use, but also shares it with other
terribly-ill friends and associates such as Burlington's Alison Myrden, 38.
The pair are among eight parties involved in a lawsuit against Health
Canada. Myrden, who uses the drug to alleviate the symptoms of multiple
sclerosis, including excruciating facial pain, was one of the first
Canadians granted a federal exemption to the marijuana possession laws. In
a time when many fellow "exemptees" have seen their exemptions expire,
Myrden has, so far, managed to maintain hers. Renda qualifies for an
exemption, but has not been able to get one. To do so he would have to find
two specialists willing to sign a document saying he has tried everything
else, but he has not been able to satisfy those conditions. Even if he had
an exemption, Renda said he would only legally be able to grow pot for his
own use. The owner of a successful marketing company with 17 employees, he
vows to continue giving marijuana to those less fortunate. "My neck is on
the line here," he admits while rolling a joint in his kitchen Saturday.
"What I'm doing is illegal. "I'm going to continue to distribute until (the
government) makes something available so these people don't have to go onto
the street." "I've got to have compassion and help out my fellow human beings.

I don't care if it's legal or not."

Through their lawsuit, the parties hope to force Ottawa to make marijuana
available to those legally entitled to it, and to change the Marijuana
Medical Access Regulations to make it easier for the sick to get into the
programme. They argue currently those granted exemptions have no choice but
to grow it themselves, or buy it on the black market. Through its licensed
contractor, Prairie Plant Systems, Health Canada has grown a large quantity
of marijuana in an abandoned mine shaft in Flin Flon, Man. The federal
government has said that marijuana is only to be used in clinical trials
and is not intended for distribution to the public. Steve Van de Kemp, 47,
another of Renda's guests and a party to the lawsuit, started growing his
own pot after feeling his life was in danger every time he bought from
street dealers. In 1997 Van de Kemp's house was raided by police and he
found himself facing a raft of drug-related charges. The case was before
the courts for two years, and in the end Van de Kemp was not only
exonerated, but on the government's exempted persons list. His exemption
expired in June and he has also been unable to satisfy the government's
more stringent qualifications, because of the waiting list for specialists,
and a growing unease within the medical community about legal and medical
liabilities. "It's a travesty," Van de Kemp says of the situation. "It's
perverted that sick people have to get off their death beds and fight the
government to use a relatively benign medication." Van de Kemp suffers from
an undiagnosed condition which causes extreme anxiety and panic attacks.

Like most of those gathered in Renda's home, he used many different
medications, each of them bringing their own side effects, until someone
suggested he try marijuana. "Voila," he says with a snap of his fingers.
"It was over like that." After eight years on disability and another year
spent depleting his savings when disability ran out, Van de Kemp recently
began working again. As he speaks, Van de Kemp's frustration becomes
increasingly obvious.

It is a trait he shares with all the other guests. "There's no way in hell
they'll beat me," says Guelph's Bob LeDuc, 52, his fingers busily snipping
at the plant in his hands. "I'm not giving up." LeDuc is another federal
exemptee whose exemption has expired.

He suffers from epilepsy, irritable bowel syndrome and psoriasis and said
marijuana alleviates the symptoms of all three. Without a safe and reliable
source of pot, however, he relies on growers such as his host this day.
"I've got to have compassion and help out my fellow human beings," Renda
says with a shrug. "I don't care if it's legal or not."