Pubdate: Fri, 09 Mar 2007
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Joey Thompson, The Province
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

TOKING UP TO FEEL BETTER NOT ACCEPTED AS MEDICAL NEED

Illegal Drugs Taboo For Offender; This Guy Not Listening

A group of 1,492 Canadians -- 21 per cent of them in B.C. -- are 
allowed to get high every day for medical reasons.

But as much as Brian Riches might like to be, the inmate isn't among them.

The offender's toking finally caught up with him yesterday when 
members of the National Parole Board rejected his pitch that 
marijuana helped him chill out and actually cut the chances he might 
commit more violent assaults.

Years ago, Riches was handed eight years, six months for savagely 
smashing Jeff Hearn's head with a claw hammer in a home invasion. 
Hearn required more than 100 staples in his skull and is on a 
permanent disability pension, as he will never work again.

Released in late 2005, Riches was hauled back into medium security 
Matsqui Institution last spring and again last summer for lighting 
up. His parole conditions were clear: illegal drugs were taboo.

He was released a third time last fall but was puffing again in no 
time. By November, he was back in the pen, his release revoked.

During yesterday's hearing, NPB members Terry Little and Gus 
Richardson appeared to have little appetite for the offender's 
recycled plea that getting stoned was the only way to calm his 
jitters and ease chronic depression.

While pot may work that way for Riches, the panel noted that neither 
ailment appears on the list of pain-induced medical conditions for 
which the federal government allows pot possession or its cultivation.

The feds, in proclaiming the law in mid 2001 that provides access, 
made it clear that those granted exemption from Canada's anti-drug 
laws would be required to prove through the community of medical 
professionals that they suffered from one or more grave or 
debilitating illnesses, namely pain or severe muscle spasms from 
multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease, as well as weight 
loss or nausea from cancer or HIV/AIDs, and severe pain from 
arthritis and seizures from epilepsy.

They're also expected to show they tried conventional treatments and 
found them to be of little use.

As far as the community parole officer knew, Riches hadn't done that.

But more and more Canadians have. Stats gathered by Health Canada 
show the government has allowed a growing number of citizens to smoke 
or ingest the plant legally, although compared to the population who 
indulge illegally, the tally is still minimal.

In 2003, the first year the program was in full bloom, 558 citizens, 
108 of them living in B.C., were granted access either by purchasing 
dried bud from Health Canada, growing a limited supply of their own 
or by designating someone else to grow it for them.

The following year, the group expanded to include 692 people across 
Canada, 144 in B.C.

By 2005, 901 Canadians were smoking legally, 181 of them in B.C.

That number grew to 1,492 in 2006 and included 320 B.C. residents -- 
three times the number of users in the initiative's first year.

But there were other factors to Riches' marijuana use that concerned 
them, the board said. His repeated refusal to obey the rules and his 
apparent lack of interest in addressing his emotional and mental 
instability by seeking help through legit medical professionals also 
convinced them he presented too high a risk to be allowed back into 
the community.

The 33-year-old is entitled to statutory release again early next 
year but the same conditions are apt to apply: do a joint and you're 
back in the joint.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom