Pubdate: Mon, 17 Sep 2012
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Valerie Hauch

WORKERS' COMP CLAIM SEEKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

It would be easier on Danny Auger's already thin wallet if he just 
took a prescribed painkiller to deal with the chronic pain he suffers 
from nerve damage, due to a horrific 2009 construction accident that 
almost completely severed one arm.

He is able to get medically prescribed drugs - no matter how 
addictive - paid for by the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board 
(formerly Worker's Compensation Board).

But the 47-year-old Orillia man knows and fears the addictive aspects 
of painkillers and prefers to use marijuana (mostly through 
ingestion, occasionally smoking) to deal with his pain. For about two 
years he's had a licence from Health Canada, supported by 
documentation from a medical doctor, that allows him to legally use 
it after obtaining it from a designated grower.

The cannabis is expensive. Auger is allowed 20 grams a day, but he 
can't afford that. He uses about an ounce, or 28 grams a week, which 
costs him $250 to $300.

"It still leaves some of the pain ... but you cope with it," he says.

His only income is $882 every two weeks from his worker's comp 
benefits. He shares an apartment with his mother, who lives on a pension.

Auger wants his marijuana covered through WSIB, just as a prescribed 
painkiller would be.

So far, WSIB has said no. His case manager, Patti Staines, said she 
could not discuss an individual case with the Star.

But the WSIB has also said no to other benefit recipients with 
similar requests. Many have appealed to the Workplace Safety and 
Insurance Appeals Tribunal, the independent body that decides 
disputes involving WSIB and claimants or employers. Often it has 
ordered WSIB to pay, noting the applicants have been officially 
granted access. (Cases are publicly searchable on its website.)

The Brampton paralegal working on Auger's appeal, Bain Thompson, 
expects his client to get a favourable decision from the tribunal. 
Thompson says he has won similar cases in the past, but the WSIB is 
not legally bound by previous tribunal decisions, even if the cases 
are similar. Each application is decided individually.

Thompson believes it's "common" for WSIB to deny applications for 
medical marijuana coverage because appeals can take a year or more to 
go to the tribunal.

"They drag it out and the majority (of applicants) go away. If 10 
knock on the door, only one might fight and stick it out" until it 
gets that far, he says.

Auger seems the sort with that kind of staying power.

On that terrible day in October 2009, Auger was working alone on a 
home renovation when he got his sleeve caught in a mitre saw. His 
left arm was nearly sliced off - left attached by only 5 millimetres 
of skin. Auger was faced with the ghastly necessity of having to 
"carry" his own arm while he ran out looking for help.

But he had the presence of mind not to panic. Though no one was home 
at the first four houses, he found someone at home at the fifth, who 
called an ambulance.

His arm was reattached at the hospital, but he lost three inches of 
it and recovered only partial use of the arm, with no fine motor skills.

The horror of the experience is still with him and he is being 
treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Auger doesn't like synthetic drugs because he got addicted to 
Oxycontin when he was prescribed it about 10 years ago after a knee 
operation. When his prescription ran out, he bought it off the street 
for about a year before he said to himself, "'This is crazy.' ... I 
stopped myself. It was very hard."

He'd also been prescribed the antidepressant Paxil for anxiety while 
he was going through a divorce several years ago. He took it for 
about six months but hated the side effects that made him feel like a "zombie."

Someone told him marijuana calmed people with anxiety issues, and he 
tried it. At that point he didn't have a licence and bought it off 
the street. "I no longer got anxiety attacks," he recalls.

He continued to use it when he felt the need. But he is adamant that 
he had not used any marijuana on the day of his accident.

At the hospital, he told doctors he didn't want any prescription 
drugs. He was given an epidural, which "worked well."

But on release, he was given prescription drugs Oxycontin, Percocet 
and Ganapehin for pain, which were covered by WSIB.

He didn't want to use them, "But I didn't have any choice when I left 
the hospital - I had to go home on something because of the pain," Auger said.

Of his own volition, he stopped using all prescription drugs six 
months ago, after gradually reducing the dosage. "It's pretty hard to 
get off them," he admits. But the medical marijuana has been "key," 
and he now feels no withdrawal symptoms.

It was after his hospital release, when he had the time to do 
research, that Auger said he learned that injesting marijuana "was 
supposed to work better (than smoking). I found a couple recipes and 
tried it. What I found was ... the cookies I cooked with cannabis 
took my nerve pain from a throbbing roar to a dull numbness that I 
find tolerable enough to live with."
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