Pubdate: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 Source: Chatham Daily News, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2013 Chatham Daily News Contact: http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/letters Website: http://www.chathamdailynews.ca Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1627 Author: John Miner, QMI Agency Woman Embarrassed, Panicked When Enveloped Arrived 40,000 MEDICAL POT USERS OUTED Medical marijuana users across Canada received this envelope from Health Canada, identifying it was sent by the medical marijuana program. Health Canada has confirmed 40,000 other letters were sent this week in error. It was a secret she didn't want carelessly shared with neighbours or anyone else in her small Southwestern Ontario community. But this week the 56-year-old medical marijuana grower and patient was stunned when she received an envelope in the mail from Health Canada with her name, address and the printing for anyone to see: "Marihuana Medical Access Program." "I cried at my mail box when I saw that, it was so upsetting. I have never been so embarrassed. I was in a panic," the woman told the Free Press. "It has been important for me to be confidential. I do a lot of volunteering and a lot of non-profit work." Health Canada confirmed to the Free Press Thursday the woman was one of 40,000 to receive informational letters on upcoming changes to the Marihuana Medical Access Program . In a statement, George Da Pont, deputy minister of Health, said he had been advised that as a result of an administrative error the envelopes were labelled to indicate they were sent by the medical marijuana program. "This is not standard Health Canada practice. On behalf of Health Canada, I deeply regret this administrative error. Health Canada is taking steps to ensure this does not happen again. "Protection of personal information is of fundamental importance to Health Canada. We are in discussion with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada," Da Pont said in his statement Living in a community where everybody knows everybody, the Southwestern Ontario woman is concerned that someone who saw the envelope at the small post office could talk about it to others. That could make her and her husband a target for thieves looking for marijuana and a subject for public ridicule. "It would just take one person that would say, 'Hey, let's go check that out,' " she said. She knows of another medical marijuana patient who was ridiculed by a local municipal councillor when it became known he was taking marijuana for cancer. "Stigmatization exists," she said. Since receiving the shocking envelope this week she has learned others in the medical program received the same identifying mail. The letter inside contained information on the changes being made to the program by the federal government in the spring. Previous letters from Health Canada on the program had never identified that the mail was from the marijuana access program. It simply said Health Canada. "Any time we have ever gotten correspondence in the past it has said from Health Canada. No one really knew what the package was. It kept our identity safe. "They used to be discrete. I believe with the program ending they don't really care anymore. They put us up as a target," she said. The Southwestern Ontario woman said she has complained to her MP and sent a written complaint to Health Canada. The woman signed up for the medical marijuana program after suffering severe arthritis for decades. "I have had tonnes of surgeries," she said. But in the end, doctors could only offer painkillers. She wanted to avoid taking opioid drugs for her constant pain and learned that marijuana oil might be an option. It took years, but eventually she was approved to legally grow and take marijuana. She has been a grower for two years. She extracts the oil from the marijuana bud, puts it in a capsule and takes one a day at nighttime. "The first night I took the oil I was out of pain, I slept through the night. I hadn't slept for probably 20 years without waking up in pain. This is an amazing medicine," she said. The federal government announced earlier it was overhauling the system for medical marijuana, moving from patient-grown marijuana to having marijuana grown by large commercial producers. [SIDEBAR] MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM * Launched in 2001 it has grown from fewer than 500 authorized persons to more than 30,000 in 2013 * Program allowed approved patients to produce marijuana in their own homes or purchase from the government * In response to concerns the system was open to abuse, the federal government is overhauling the system * Under the new regulations personal production by individuals in their homes will be eliminated on March 31, 2014 - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom