ACTIVISTS LINK POT PATIENTS WITH GROWERS

Members of a Saskatchewan marijuana lobby group have started acting as
intermediaries between pot growers and patients who have a medical
exemption to smoke the drug, saying they are providing a compassionate
service to those in need.

"Somebody's got to help these people. We are prepared to help them fill
that prescription," said Timothy Hampton, Saskatchewan president of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

"It's absolutely illegal, but we have volunteers who are willing to go to
jail here."

The Saskatchewan branch of NORML has started a program called the
Grower-Patient Connection. Patients who have AIDS, cancer, anorexia, or
other afflictions may qualify for a medical exemption to smoke pot as therapy.

More than 500 Canadians have received the exemption, including about 10 in
Saskatchewan. The problem, said Hampton, is patients have no place to
purchase the drug legally.

The federal government operation in Flin Flon will supply marijuana for
research, and what is left for patients won't be available until next year.

Patients can designate a grower to supply them legally, but the grower
cannot have a pot-related criminal conviction in the past 10 years,
according to Health Canada rules. Patients can also get a licence to grow
their own pot.

Health Canada spokesperson Andrew Swift notes that no one has yet been
granted a licence as a designated grower.

That means people have to buy the drugs from an illegal grower. It becomes
legal for patients to possess it, although the producer is committing a
crime by growing and supplying it to them.