TV SHOW FOCUSES ON POT AS MEDICINE

A Victoria-produced documentary to be shown nationally next week is
aimed at prompting questions about the federal government's medical
marijuana program.

Crimes of Compassion is a one-hour piece which looks at efforts by
the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS) to distribute
marijuana to terminally ill patients, and explores various
perspectives on the issue.

"I think that this documentary is really just scratching the surface
of a very huge topical issue," says director Jennifer Pickford. "It's
a health issue but it's also a human rights issue."

Last July, the federal government announced plans to make medical
marijuana available to terminally ill patients or sick people whose
illness qualified under Health Canada regulations.

However, to date only one major supplier, Prairie Plant Systems of
Manitoba, has been licensed to supply the cannabis and none of its
product has yet reached the Greater Victoria area.

Meanwhile, "compassion" societies have sprung up around the country
as a way to supply those same patients with local pot. Many have
been shut down by local police departments and their operators
charged with trafficking, given their contravention of municipal
bylaws.

"On one hand we've got (federal Health Minister) Alan Rock saying I
approve of that, and on the other hand we've got all these operations
being shut down," says Pickford.

Filming of the documentary began with shots in and around the
compassion society's storefront location, formerly in Oak Bay. The
focus of the project took a left turn, says Pickford, when the shop
was broken into and VICS founder Phillipe Lucas, after giving
evidence about what was stolen, was charged with possession and
trafficking.

"Our society, I don't see us directly benefiting from (the airing of
the documentary), says Lucas, who pleas guilty to a lesser single
charge of trafficking and will be sentenced April 12.

"The important thing is that at least some good things can come from
this bust and about the information regarding medical marijuana use."

Lucas, who has hepatitis-C, is a legal medical marijuana user, but he
has yet to receive any of the federally-approved supply of pot
because of what he calls problems with Health Canada's distribution
chain.

"It's so tough and so frustrating," he says. "Literally it's a
court-ordered mandate that they have yet to fulfill."

Pickford says given the lack of distribution centres, there are
definite questions about whether Health Canada is denying patients
proper and timely access to medical marijuana. She wonders as well
what the role might be down the road for compassion societies,
especially since many have worked with patients for some time and are
familiar with what methods of ingestion and what types of cannabis
work best for each person.

The documentary is supposed to air across Canada on Wednesday, Feb.
20 at 10 p.m. on Global Television .

Besides members of the VICS, Pickford says others interviewed for the
documentary include Rock; Dr. Clayne Steed, president of the Alberta
Medical Association: Dr. Dave Hepburn of Vic West (he writes a weekly
column for News Group newspapers in the Capitol Region); members of
the B.C. Compassion Club Society and B.C. Marijuana Party.