USING MARIJUANA TO ALLEVIATE PAIN HARDLY CRIMINAL

Henry George Adams is an unlikely "criminal."

He is 86 years old, has never been in jail, has always paid his taxes on
time and has lived his "life for the Lord."

Indeed, the thick, leather-bound Bible sitting on his daughter's kitchen
table in southeast Calgary is so worn, anyone looking at it would assume
he'd had it his entire life.

"Oh no," he says with a chuckle. "This Bible is not even two years old.
It's just that there's no better way we can spend our time than reading
God's word."

Just four months ago, however, Adams was so sick and so frail he could
barely read his precious Bible. Fact is, he could barely eat or sleep, so
relentless was his pain from the prostate cancer that has now spread into
his bones -- including his spine.

Luckily for him, his daughter Eunice Cluff, 50, had seen the remarkable
effect marijuana products had made in the life of her husband Grant Cluff,
a former high school teacher who has multiple sclerosis. She decided to
pull her father out of the nursing home he was in, take him off of almost
20 medications and start feeding him with muffins and food containing
cannabis butter and hashish.

"It really is remarkable how much better I feel," says the former farm
publication salesman.

While confined to a wheelchair just a few months ago and "just a bag of
bones," Adams has gained 25 lb. and, the other day, walked the entire
length of Marlborough Mall.

It may not sound like much, but for Adams -- who also lost both his legs at
the age of 18 in a railway accident and suffers from Parkinson's disease --
it is miraculous.

"I was also having terrible spasms in both of my stumps, but those have
gone too," he exclaims.

"I really believe God gave us marijuana as a remarkable medicine."

Eunice laughs at the irony of it all. Just one year ago, she wasn't just a
skeptic about the benefits of marijuana, she was vehemently opposed to the
stuff.

"I thought only low-lifes did marijuana," she says, as two of her
grandchildren -- Zoe, 3, and Noah, 4 -- play and laugh in the living room.

Now, she's not only a believer, she's become a marijuana minstrel, turning
a small bedroom in her apartment into the unofficial Compassion Club of
Calgary -- where sick people can come to find out information about
marijuana and other "herbs."

Sitting in that room is Grant Krieger, Calgary's foremost cannabis crusader
- -- who, once again, despite being granted an exemption from the country's
archaic marijuana laws, must appear in court today to answer to charges of
possession of marijuana.

His recognizance order -- which is so rife with factual errors, you have to
wonder if the person who wrote it knows how to spell and read a calendar --
states Krieger will be in breach of the conditions of his $300 bail if he
possesses "marihuana"(sic.).

"I need my medicine to walk and they say it's against the law even though a
jury of 12 at the Court of Queen's Bench says I can legally possess and
grow marijuana," says Krieger.

"When will it end?" asks Krieger, who like Cluff was once confined to a
wheelchair from MS but now scoots around the city in borrowed cars
delivering pot -- at no profit and often at a loss -- to other ill people.

Currently, one of his "legitimate" suppliers, Randy Newsham, is
incarcerated in the Calgary Remand Centre, charged with cultivation and
possession for the purposes of trafficking of marijuana.

On noon Saturday, the Grant W. Krieger Cannabis Research Foundation is
holding a protest outside the jail to protest Newsham's arrest.

"He was under a contractual agreement with me to grow marijuana," says Krieger.

As for Adams, yesterday he had a hearty wrestle on the floor with his
great-grandson Noah.

"I used to think doing marijuana for any reason was not just criminal but a
sin," says Adams with his trademark glowing smile. "Now, while it may be a
criminal act, I just KNOW in my heart it's not a sin."

Amen, brother.