Pubdate: Fri, 08 May 2009
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Jon Ferry
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

COMPASSION AND COMMON SENSE CAN RESOLVE THIS

Are you having fun in this election campaign yet? Well, I'm not. I 
prefer watching the Canucks. And I sometimes ask myself what's the 
point of having elections in this ideologically torn province if we 
can't seem to sort out simple matters, let alone complex ones like 
cap-and-trade and the single transferable vote. I'm talking here 
about down-to-earth issues, such as providing housing for 
wheelchair-bound, double amputee Marilyn Holsten, who now faces 
eviction from her East Vancouver suite for smoking the pot she feels 
she needs to ease her pain.

For the past eight years, Holsten has lived in a seven-storey 
apartment building run by the Anavets Senior Citizens Housing 
Society. It's one where tobacco-smoking is allowed, but some folks in 
the 60 suites there obviously don't like the smell of skunk.

And normally I wouldn't blame them. However, the 49-year-old Holsten, 
a diabetic who goes for dialysis five times a week at Vancouver 
General Hospital, is a single woman with a host of medical problems, 
and clearly needs our help.

Certainly, she was having a rough morning when I phoned her 
yesterday. She was literally sick with worry about the prospect of 
being homeless, especially since B.C. Housing had apparently just 
phoned her to tell her she wouldn't be allowed to remain on its waiting list.

She is determined, though, to fight for what she rightly or wrongly 
believes in. And she's appealing her eviction notice at a Residential 
Tenancy Branch hearing June 9.

"If I don't fight, I could end up homeless," she told me. "And I'm in 
a wheelchair with no legs. So it's pretty scary the idea of being 
homeless. I mean, if they do that to me, I'm just going to go up to 
palliative care and stop dialysis and die. That's my only other option."

Holsten says she's tried using regular painkillers, like oxycontin, 
but does not want take anything that makes her "zombie-like." 
Instead, she prefers pot, which she gets from places on Commercial 
Drive or from friends.

It's a terribly sad story from a middle-aged woman who needs a break 
in life in the worst way. As Jodie Emery, the Green Party candidate 
for Vancouver-Fraserview, pointed out: "It was really quite a 
depressing sight to see."

Emery and her husband, pot activist Marc Emery, had gone to Holsten's 
suite Wednesday to deliver a fancy, German-made vaporizer, like one 
they have at home. It should eliminate much of the marijuana smell. 
And let's hope it works until Holsten can get a special 
medical-marijuana permit, which she really ought to have had all along.

Having said all that, there are two sides to this issue. Marijuana 
smoking is still illegal in this province. And if, like the Anavets, 
you're trying to run a safe, clean apartment complex, you don't want 
a bunch of stoners and their drug-trading buddies hanging around your 
building. You want peaceful, law-abiding tenants.

Anavets administrative secretary Mary McLeod agrees Holsten's case is 
a sad one. She also acknowledges that some tenants in the building 
smoke tobacco. But she notes that smoking tobacco isn't against the law.

"She [Holsten] signed a tenancy agreement, and a material term of 
that tenancy agreement was that marijuana smoking is not permitted," 
McLeod said, adding neither she or her bosses were prepared to comment further.

Also, smoking marijuana is far from the harmless drug it's cracked up 
to be by diehard pot advocates.

Dr. Bill MacEwan, a leading Vancouver psychiatrist, says pot does 
have pain-relieving properties. But he points out there is a link 
between marijuana and psychosis, and that smoking weed can be unhealthy.

"Smoking marijuana's not benign," he said yesterday. "I mean, people 
always overlook the aspect of it that it's smoking, so it's not good 
for your lungs. It does have a lot of tar and stuff."

Besides, those who buy pot, whether they care to admit it or not, are 
feeding the illegal drug trade and the violence that comes with it.

Let's, however, not get into a ping-pong argument. This is a case of 
a struggling British Columbian crying out for help. And I suggest 
there is a third way here, namely direct intervention by Victoria.

I couldn't reach Housing Minister Rich Coleman for comment yesterday. 
He presumably was far too busy getting re-elected. However, I humbly 
suggest he call a meeting with Holsten, Holsten's representative and 
an Anavets rep to help sort this problem right away.

This is not a partisan issue. And it shouldn't be allowed to drag on. 
Our B.C. government needs to step in here and show we are not just a 
province with a bunch of rules and regulations, but one with 
compassion and common sense.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom