Pubdate: Wed, 12 May 2004
Source: Oakville Beaver (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004, Oakville Beaver
Contact:  http://www.haltonsearch.com/hr/ob/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1600
Author: Alison Myrden
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n692/a02.html?68520
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

OAKVILLE NDP CANDIDATE OFFENDED BY COVERAGE

I would like to respond to reporter Craig MacBride's story NDP have high 
hopes in the Oakville Beaver, Wednesday, May 5. The first paragraph of the 
story mentions immediately that I had been physically ill before and after 
winning my nomination.

This is true.

May I remind Mr. MacBride that I am one of the most ill people in this 
country because of the excruciating pain I suffer in my face every day, and 
that I don't have a constant steady supply of cannabis which is imperative 
to my functioning as a normal human being.

Had I not continued to smoke my medicine that evening I would not have been 
able to respond to much, the other choice of which is having to ultimately 
live in a pharmaceutical haze unless otherwise supplied by my friends and 
family with a continuous source of cannabis.

As a member of a prestigious Law Enforcement Organization called LEAP, 
being a Federal Medical Marijuana Exemptee and having spent 10 years in 
Correctional Facilities around Ontario, I would have thought Mr. MacBride 
would have understood my expertise in this and not made light of this very 
serious issue the way he did.

I do not wish to make this about marijuana.

Would Mr. MacBride focus on a candidate with cancer so intently, or 
diabetes? What if I had to inject my medicine to feel better, would this 
have been more acceptable to Mr. MacBride?

This is about my running for Federal Office in the next election and making 
a difference with the New Democratic Party of Canada, which I will.

Would Mr. MacBride be so insensitive to question someone who is on 
chemotherapy to battle cancer, why they are vomiting continuously while 
trying to run their campaign? I believe people would call that person 
courageous.

I am guessing Mr. MacBride, that you have never watched your loved ones 
suffer from relentless and debilitating disease and then denied them 
understanding and empathy for their medicine with a stroke of your pen as 
you have done with me.

I would have thought that for your expertise you would have written a 
better story on a woman who can seemingly handle many tasks without serious 
issue and do so without turning back. That would have been my focus.

The NDP is an incredible political organization because it is for the people.

I can see that you are not NDP, your penmanship disclosed that.

ALISON MYRDEN, NDP CANDIDATE, OAKVILLE RIDING

Ed. Note: The intent of the story was never to make light of Alison 
Myrden's illness. The angle of the story was chosen to highlight the 
seriousness of her illness to explain one of the main thrusts of her 
campaign -- to improve government legislation for the accessibility of the 
proper strains of marijuana for federal medical marijuana exemptees.

For the record, Craig MacBride did not lurk in the parking lot. He was told 
this information by the candidate, and he was not late for the meeting.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom