COMPASSION CLUB HELPING AIDS VICTIM

A Penticton man suffering from AIDS has been given the nod by the British
Columbia Compassion Club Society in Vancouverto receive a monthly supply of
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

James Banko, 61, joins a growing number of South Okanagan residents with
life-threatening diseases who are quietly tapping into a legally sanctioned
source of the weed.

Banko will have approximately 20 cigarettes a month sent to him by the
society's authorized growers, for which he will pay a nominal fee of $30.

The step is a personal triumph for Banko, who still considers himself an
exception among the ill for pursuing access to marijuana, considering the
number of AIDS sufferers in the Valley.

The paperwork needed to qualify is too extensive for someone in his
condition, he said. Three doctors must contribute signed statements saying
the cannabis is needed.

But, Banko stressed, more AIDS victims must take advantage of the service
to in turn make it more accessible.

"People need to get off their asses and do something about it. They need to
realize it takes time to get help," he said.

"They screen you, you go through doctors. There's nothing they don't know
about you. Your life is an open book."

Banko was diagnosed with Hepatitis B in March 1997, and HIV a year later.
Originally from Edmonton, the father of two grown children thinks he
contracted the disease through unprotected sex.

As his health has continued its downward slide, he's managed to get into
subsidized housing at Kiwanis Court on Brunswick Street and has taken a
regimen of medications prescribed through physicians associated with the
AIDS Resource Centre in Kelowna.

Staff there suggested he consider cannabis as an option to control the
nausea, loss of appetite and lack of sleep plaguing him. More traditional
medication works, he explained, but only for a short period at a time.

"It works, but it does not take away the fact you need to eat and sleep,"
he said. "You can't take too much or you become immune."

Once Banko was made aware of what is involved to join the society and was
sent a package to complete, it took him about six weeks to be accepted.

That's hardly exorbitant, considering that marijuana is still a prohibited
substance, said society founder and co-director Hilary Black.

"However long it takes to fulfill your obligations is really not our
responsibility."

In its defence, the service - the only mail order supplier in Canada - is
vastly over-extended, she added, with a database of 1,600 members, which is
growing daily.

The compassion club is always on the alert for fake documents submitted by
prospective members, which are rampant.

Among the documents required is a written commitment the user won't turn
around and sell the marijuana. A request for any more than four or five
grams a day, and red flags go up in the club office.

Black appears before a Senate committee next Wednesday, to continue her
lobbying for a loosening of restrictions governing the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes.