Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 2012
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact:  http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Author: Katie May

GOV'T RULES TO BLAME FOR MARIJUANA CONFUSION

The case of a Lethbridge man whose daisies were mistaken for dope 
calls into question the way the federal government doles out the drug 
to Albertans, according to a medical marijuana advocate.

Tamara Cartwright-Poulits holds a medical marijuana licence and is 
president of Southern Alberta Cannabis Club and the newly formed 
Central Alberta Cannabis Club, which together represent about 120 
marijuana users in the province. If Alberta doctors were more willing 
to approve medical marijuana licences for qualifying patients, she 
believes, cases like Ryan Rockman's wouldn't tie up police's time.

Rockman, 41, was accused three months ago of harbouring the largest 
outdoor marijuana grow operation in Lethbridge's history -- a charge 
police dropped earlier this week after lab results showed the 1,624 
plants they seized from his backyard were not, in fact, marijuana. 
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams' drug investigators 
haven't officially backed Rockman's assertion that the plants are 
indeed daisies, and local botanical experts haven't been able to 
identify the exact species of the flowers.

Rockman, who told The Herald he occasionally smokes marijuana to cope 
with back pain and has been unsuccessful at getting a medical 
marijuana licence, still faces four other criminal charges. He's 
charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of 
a controlled substance, and possessing proceeds of crime in relation 
to 6.3 grams of cannabis resin, 697 grams of dried marijuana, and 
some cash that police also seized during the investigation. He had 
two counts of producing a controlled substance officially withdrawn 
in Lethbridge provincial court Friday.

Meanwhile, the case has earned national attention, lighting up 
discussions about laws governing marijuana use in Canada and police's 
enforcement of them. It's a conversation that wouldn't even be 
happening if more Alberta doctors were accepting of Health Canada's 
guidelines on medical marijuana, Cartwright-Poulits said.

"It's so hard in Alberta for us to get a doctor to sign our papers, 
so a lot of people like Ryan are sitting at home medicating 
themselves in their own homes, minding their own business, but 
because they don't have that pink piece of paper from our government, 
they're getting persecuted," she said, adding she's known Rockman for 
about 10 years and had the same type of daisies police seized growing 
in her own garden when she lived in Taber.

"He's not an organized criminal by any stretch. He's a grandfather, 
he's a father and he's trying to make a life for himself and now he's 
got these charges which is costing him money that he doesn't have," she said.

Cartwright-Poulits, who now lives on a ranch near Hanna, had to fly 
to Ontario to see a doctor who granted her a medical marijuana 
licence to ease symptoms of colitis. The licences have to be renewed 
annually, and more recently she was able to find a supportive doctor 
in Edmonton to sign her forms. But she said she fields four to five 
calls daily from Albertans whose doctors have refused them.

Although Health Canada requires proof from a doctor that the patient 
has a serious medical condition before it will issue a medical 
marijuana licence, the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Alberta 
tells its doctors not to prescribe medical marijuana.

"In the absence of evidence as to efficacy, we will continue to 
counsel our members not to authorize (or 'prescribe') this drug for 
medical purposes," states a January 2012 report from registrar Trevor Theman.

Only about 153 Alberta doctors have authorized medical marijuana 
licences, compared to 939 in Ontario, 685 in British Columbia and 198 
in Nova Scotia, according to January 2010 statistics from Health 
Canada, which also show that doctors in the Prairie provinces are the 
least likely to support medical marijuana licences.

In Alberta, there were about 322 licensed medical marijuana users in 2010.
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