Pubdate: Sun, 23 Oct 2016
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2016 The Calgary Sun
Contact: http://www.calgarysun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Michael Platt
Page: 7

POT PIONEER

Krieger helped lead the way to legalization of medical marijuana

To lose his legacy in a haze of legalized pot would be an
injustice.

Not that Grant Krieger isn't feeling lost enough these days, some
seven years after he abandoned his crusade to use and supply medicinal
marijuana, as a real and effective treatment for conditions like the
multiple sclerosis he's battled for decades.

"I could be better, and I could be worse, but I'm just so frustrated
at the way things ended," says Krieger, from his home in Calgary. "I'm
just a hermit now." Obviously he has the right to feel he didn't go
far enough - but for those on the outside, including journalists who
watched Krieger deliberately disobey the law in order to force Canada
to reassess it's stance on marijuana, it's what the man started that
should make him proud.

At a time when patients can now easily access doctors willing to
prescribe government-mandated marijuana, and with a federal government
quickly moving to legalize the once-feared narcotic, it's pot pioneers
like Krieger who deserve credit for getting the whole thing rolling,
and we're not talking joints.

It started in 1996, when Krieger was arrested in Holland while trying
to board a flight back to Toronto's Pearson International Airport with
a suitcase containing weed, in an open act of defiance meant to test
Canada's marijuana import laws for medical patients.

Months later, Krieger and his wife Marie were in court, charged with
possessing marijuana in their Regina home for the purpose of
trafficking, after the couple was busted for supplying pot to other
chronically ill patients.

They openly defended themselves, admitting to selling the drug to
others with the painful disease, and Krieger, ever aware of headlines,
announced he would traffic an ounce of pot for the television cameras,
as another act of open defiance.

"In a way I'm breaking the law, but I don't feel guilty," Krieger told
the press.

It wasn't just breaking the law (and indeed he was), but Krieger's
ability to combine his convictions with showmanship and good timing
that made his crusade for change so successful.

The legal fight didn't always go his way - though in 2000, Krieger won
a landmark judicial ruling, allowing him to use pot for personal
medical purposes - but looking back, they were battles, not the war.

Sure he served a short stint in jail, and sure, he eventually grew
exhausted after 13 years of fighting, but what a legacy.

"I just don't want to be bothered with police any more. They harass
me," Krieger said, at the time.

"I'm just tired of the system. I'm not doing it any more. I don't grow
it any more."

But the Calgarian had already won.

The war was one of awareness, and letting Canada know that cannabis
was more than a recreational drug for hippies, headbangers and
burnouts - and that there were actual medical benefits to the plant
that made life bearable for people like Krieger.

 From the moment he made his airport plan public back in '96, Krieger
was in the news - and his argument that pot was valid treatment made
the news with him.

Krieger's real accomplishment was getting Canada talking about
marijuana as a medicine, and every time he was arrested, tried or
interviewed, that conversation took place too.

The war was awareness, and Krieger led the pro-medical marijuana side
to a decisive victory.

Now, with U.S. states like Colorado and Washington legalizing
marijuana and Canada set to follow, it's easy to overlook what Krieger
did for those needing pot for their pain and suffering, and to forget
would be unfair.

Krieger himself, incidentally, is still using marijuana and is doing
remarkably well.

At 62, the long-term MS patient was planning to help build a deck the
afternoon following this interview: "More as a supervisor," he said.

Krieger says that while he's glad opinions have changed on marijuana,
he now fears what he hoped would be a literal grassroots revolution
will just give way to profits.

"I would like to see thing set up differently, because this way, it's
all about making money," said Krieger.

"It shouldn't cost any more to grow than a tomato plant."
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MAP posted-by: Matt