Pubdate: Sun, 30 Aug 2009 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2009 Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.edmontonsun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135 Author: Bruce Codere Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk. RULES THAT GOVERN CANNABIS ARE A FRAUD Marilyn Holsten of Vancouver died of a heart attack earlier in August. She was nearly blind, diabetic, a double amputee. She was a burden. She was taboo. She died because of bureaucratic idiocy and contempt. Marilyn used cannabis to control her pain. Her medical condition caused the pain, but government made it terminal: her last year on Earth was a living hell because of our irrational legal relationship with cannabis. Marilyn was a Federal exemptee, legally allowed to consume cannabis. But the rules that govern cannabis are a fraud, and so is the government that made and maintains those rules, so she couldn't legally use cannabis in her own apartment where she had lived for a decade. Some people came to Marilyn's aid and I applaud them, but as a society we treated her like table scraps and that is a disgrace. Bruce Codere (Pot politics drag on.) - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake