Pubdate: Sat, 08 Aug 2009
Source: Telegraph-Journal (Saint John, CN NK)
Page: A10
Copyright: 2009 Brunswick News Inc.
Contact: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/onsite.php?page=contact
Website: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2878
Author: Russell Barth

FEW DEFEND LEGAL MARIJUANA USERS

The punitive policy structure regulating medical marijuana use in 
Canada is utterly insane, not to mention inhumane.

This is by design. If the program were a success, more people would 
use it. Then more people would be getting well, not having seizures 
and not dying.

Then they'd talk in the media about how pot is great and saved their 
lives, and that totally undermines the government's propaganda war against pot.

So they underfund it, understaff it, and make up rules that are 
nearly impossible to adhere to. The pot grown by Prairie Plant 
Systems is oxidized, full of seeds and stem (making it worse to 
smoke), zapped with gamma radiation (which kills half the medicine), 
and stinks of chemicals (because it wasn't grown properly).

It is already paid for with taxpayers' dollars, but Health Canada 
still has the gall to charge sick and dying people $5 a gram for this mulch.

The government has set up an unconstitutional program to prop up an 
unconstitutional prohibition. The office actually calls the doctor to 
discourage higher doses (practising medicine without a licence is 
apparently legal for bureaucrats), and licensees are harassed by 
police and routinely discriminated against. We have to carry special 
papers to keep us out of jail because we have medical conditions. 
It's medical segregation!

The media seems to think that it's just a few sick people who want to 
get high. Almost no one comes to our defence, as we're systematically 
discriminated against and stigmatized by our own government.

RUSSELL BARTH Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom