MEDICAL MARIJUANA MESSAGE ON THE MOVE

Quashed Tea Joint Gets Rolling With Funky Cannabus

With doors to Vancouver's first legitimate Marijuana Tea House suddenly
closed due to what operators are calling spurious building-code violations,
advocates for the medicinal use of marijuana are taking their tea bags and
their campaign on the highway.

So, should a mini-school bus-dubbed the "Cannabus" -in full maple and
cannabis-leaf regalia cruise through your Vancouver neighbourhood, it's
your oppportunity to hear first-hand the message Merlin Project founder and
director Michael Maniotis and Yoram Adler are aching to share.

"Basically, we're trying to inform people across Canada of their
constitutional right to access cannabis," Maniotis explained.

The federal Medical Marijuana Access Regulation of July 2001 allows
individuals suffering chronic and/or painful ailments to use the otherwise
illegal drug medicinally, to ease symptoms and suffering.

All ailing persons need do is get a licence-not as easy as it sounds,
according to Maniotis, who says interference from the College of Physicians
and Surgeons is pressuring doctors to deny marijuana prescriptions.
"They're threatening doctors with loss of insurance," he said, adding the
MMAR requires doctors prescribing marijuana to dispense it as well.
"Doctors don't do that for any other drug they prescribe," he said. "It's
ludicrous to expect them to sell it to their patients."

The mobile tea house and information centre was set to leave the Lower
Mainland for a cross-Canada tour including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
and Ontario. "We'll tell people how to go about applying for a licence."
That includes apprising them of all the roadblocks they'll hit, like
general practitioners not even wanting to discuss the matter, specialists
trying to divert patients to other treatments, and long delays while a
meagre staff at the staff at the Office of Cannabis Medical Access sort
through the estimated 40,000 applications they've received.

Currently there are fewer than 300 licensed users, says Maniotis and
neither he (who suffers from arthritis and depression), nor any of the
Merlin Project's 2,000 members are among them, despite being the first to
apply. "(The regulation) is just an illusion. The right to possess or
cultivate medical marijuana doesn't exist because of Health Canada's
inefficiency and the opposition of the College of Physicians and Surgeons."

Maniotis said he and members of the Merlin Project plan to pursue the
matter in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Meanwhile, Cannabus and crew are due back in Vancouver this week until 12,
after a Calgary run.

For those interested in applying for a licence, information on the
regulations and forms are available on Health Canada's website at
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca.