Pubdate: Wed, 16 Apr 2003
Source: Halifax Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://www.herald.ns.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Amy Pugsley Fraser

NO TAX BREAK FOR MARIJUANA

Woman With MS Can't Believe She Can't Deduct Her $12,000 Pot Bill

A multiple sclerosis sufferer with a legal permit to smoke marijuana wants 
to deduct her drugs as a medical expense on her tax return.

"It is a medication," Jane Parker said Tuesday. "I don't do this for fun. I 
do this so I can walk, so I can get up in the morning . . . and so I can 
sleep at night."

The Lunenburg County woman turned to marijuana a few years ago after her 
medically prescribed drugs had little effect on the symptoms. They also 
made her sick to her stomach.

"I want a life and (marijuana) allows me to have one," Ms. Parker said. "I 
don't hurt anybody and I'm the one that has to pay the exorbitant costs."

Her Health Canada smokers permit allows the 41-year-old mother of seven to 
consume up to five grams a day. At $10 a gram, her drug bills stack up 
quickly. Last year, she spent $12,000 on marijuana; the year before it was 
$14,000. Her only income is a Canada Pension Plan that gives her about $600 
a month.

"That's why my husband is working his butt off to pick up the rest of it," 
she said quickly.

"I live in my overdraft, my house is up for sale. How many steps am I away 
from bankruptcy?"

This month, Ms. Parker was getting ready to file her tax return and decided 
to try to get some of her drug money back.

Because she had no receipts from the street dealers who regularly supply 
her with marijuana, she took the necessary steps to swear an affidavit 
about her expenses before a commissioner of oaths.

That's when her accountant informed her that the thousands she was hoping 
to claim under the medical expense tax credit would not pass the government 
test.

A spokesman for the Nova Scotia branch of the Canada Customs and Revenue 
Agency agreed.

"The only things that would be eligible are the things that are actually 
prescribed by a medical practitioner or dispensed by a pharmacist," 
communications manager Roy Jamieson said Tuesday from his Halifax office.

"If the material comes from other sources, whether it be a health food 
store or over the counter (medication) or out on the street, there's no way 
to fit them into the criteria."

In Revenue Canada's eyes, medical marijuana is no different from 
alternative treatments "like Aspirin, health supplements or vitamins," Mr. 
Jamieson said.

"There's quite a long list of them out there . . . and none of those are 
eligible either, unless they are actually prescribed."

For Ms. Parker, there's no doubt that marijuana is a more effective pain 
medication than the drug cocktail her doctor prescribed years ago.

"I'm not in a wheelchair anymore and I'm not bedridden anymore," she said.

The right to smoke medical marijuana is still so new - it became legal with 
a court ruling in the spring of 1999 - that there is no case precedent in 
this province.

"To our knowledge, the question hasn't been raised here in Nova Scotia 
before," Mr. Jamieson said.

That's no comfort to Ms. Parker.

"I'm tired of banging on doors," she said.

"First, I went after Health Canada for an exemption extension . . . and I 
had to go through loops and hoops in order to be allowed to use it without 
fear of criminal prosecution."

Now she's fearful that she could face prosecution again because one federal 
government department doesn't acknowledge the strides that another 
department is making.

"The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," Ms. Parker said.

There could be hope on the horizon, though.

Doctors may prescribe government-grown marijuana from Flin Flon, Man., when 
it's ready for consumption.

"I'm only speculating here," Mr. Jamieson said, "but certainly it could 
fall within the terms of the medical expense regulations, depending . . . 
if I was able to go to a pharmacist or a hospital or my doctor and get it 
dispensed."

The list of regulations governing what's eligible for the tax credit is 
updated from time to time, he said.

"And certainly the opportunity would always be there for interested 
individuals to make representations for changes."

Ms. Parker said it's beyond her means to shell out extra cash to fight for 
marijuana's inclusion on the tax credit eligibility list.

"I'm just not going to file my return," she said.

"I'll probably end up in jail with nothing, but this is my fight."
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