Pubdate: Wed, 11 Mar 2015
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2015 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://www.herald.ns.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Dan Arsenault

HEALTH CANADA LEGAL CHANGES LAND DARTMOUTH MEDICAL POT USER IN COURT

Medical marijuana advocates are fuming over last week's arrest of a
Dartmouth man who used to have Health Canada's permission to grow pot.

As a result, the Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana society
intends to hold a news conference at the Farm Assists cannabis shop on
Gottingen Street in Halifax on Wednesday.

The move follows last Wednesday's arrest of 46-year-old Bob Dillman
and his wife, who are charged with possession and cultivation of cannabis.

"You can't treat patients like this," Dillman said in an interview
Tuesday.

"It's the only medicine I can access, and they've impeded my health -
they've threatened my life."

Dillman is a former cook and current director of the Medical Cannabis
Patients' Alliance of Canada.

He injured his lower back at work in 2008, went on workers'
compensation and was prescribed pharmaceuticals, which soon became an
issue for him.

"My immune system quit," Dillman said, adding that he was getting
rashes and experiencing loss of bowel control.

Muscle spasms from constant vomiting left him unable to stand
straight, he said, and the additives in one low-dose Aspirin can
damage his intestines and hospitalize him for over a month.

By the end of that year, Dillman had Health Canada permission to use
marijuana and began growing it with the department's permission. He
said it saved his life.

His last licence to legally grow pot was set to end in Febuary 2014.
He reapplied but was denied on the basis of coming changes to the laws.

According to information provided Tuesday by Health Canada, the
changeover from Marijuana Medical Access Regulations to Marijuana for
Medical Purposes Regulations was designed to stop a practice that
allowed 26,000 Canadians to grow pot at home. The change is intended
to force them to buy from licensed commercial producers.

Health Canada does not comment on individual cases.

However, it appears Dillman's renewal application was denied because
of that regulatory change, with the access regulations ending March
31. However, about 20,000 of those previously licensed growers are
still producing marijuana because of an injunction imposed during a
constitutional legal challenge.

Anyone without a valid permit as of March 31 - such as Dillman - isn't
protected by that injunction.

"I just want to be left alone, grow my plants and try to live out the
rest of my life in peace," Dillman said.

"Other than speeding tickets, I've never broken the
law."

The trouble started in February when Dillman got into a dispute with
his landlord, who wanted to enter his residence at a time when Dillman
wanted to leave for an appointment. Patrol officers arrived and
settled that dispute but took note of the growing marijuana.

Halifax Regional Police spokeswoman Const. Dianne Woodworth said the
officers informed the drug unit and a search warrant was subsequently
executed. She said plants, dried marijuana and growing equipment were
seized, but she would not give more information because of the ongoing
court case.

Dillman said he lost 17 half-grown plants and 40 grams of marijuana.
He and his wife are due in Dartmouth provincial court April 9.

While she does not use pot, Dillman said he smokes or ingests five to
10 grams of different strains of cannabis daily. He's managed to
continue this since his arrest but wouldn't say how.

He said Health Canada is wrong to force him to buy poor-quality
marijuana, which could contain chemicals he can't handle, at a higher
price.

Dillman said he gets $1,482 monthly from the Workers' Compensation
Board of Nova Scotia, but that amount won't cover his monthly
marijuana costs.

"The stress is too much for me," he said.

Debbie Stultz-Giffin, chairwoman of Maritimers Unite for Medical
Marijuana, said Health Canada created a grey area during the
regulatory changeover that shortchanged people who weren't licensed
when the injunction began.

"The wheels weren't able to get in motion quickly enough to stop them
from beginning the implementation of the program," Stultz-Giffin said
in an email.

"What an abhorrent waste of taxpayers' dollars in this cash-strapped
province, to be prosecuting economically deprived, critically ill
patients who have been forced to choose between their health and
liberty because of Health Canada's unconstitutional medical cannabis
program."
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