A Vanier man with AIDS who smokes marijuana on the advice of his doctors was marched out of his house with his wife and 12-year-old son - -- hands on their heads -- and arrested shortly before midnight Monday. The Ottawa-Carleton police regional drug unit charged Jean-Charles Pariseau with drug possession and production yesterday following the arrest. It is the second time in the past year that Mr. Pariseau, 31, has been charged with marijuana use and cultivation. "When they came for me, I said 'Oh no, not again,' " Mr. Pariseau said from his home yesterday. "I don't know why they bother me again. I only use it myself and I need it to live." [continues 703 words]
Host Of Dignitaries Hope To Nip Campaign In Bud Days before the United Nations is to announce its most ambitious anti-drug program ever, hundreds of world leaders, including 80 Canadians, have signed a ground-breaking petition asking the UN to support the liberalization of drug laws instead. The petition, a rough draft of which has been obtained by the Citizen, will be presented to the UN General Assembly when it convenes Monday for what are expected to be hard-nosed discussions on how to crack down on trade in illegal drugs. [continues 585 words]
Surete du Quebec officers rousted Wally Ethier from his room at a senior citizens' residence on Sacre-Coeur Boulevard in Hull yesterday and confronted the 72-year-old man with allegations that he had sold marijuana to teenagers from a nearby high school. They seized about 30 grams of marijuana and roughly $350 in cash at his apartment. The officers questioned Mr. Ethier for almost four hours. Police expect to lay charges as early as today. ``He was arrested after a thorough investigation,'' Sgt. Michel Lepine said. ``There will be charges against him.'' [continues 486 words]
Experts are divided on whether to believe snowboarder Ross Rebagliati's claim that he inhaled -- but didn't smoke -- marijuana. The amount of marijuana metabolites found in Mr. Rebagliati's bloodstream was so insignificant, says Simon Fraser psychology professor Barry Beyerstein, that the only thing it proves is that the athlete didn't smoke a large amount of marijuana recently. ``It's a tiny, tiny amount,'' argues Mr. Beyerstein, one of Canada's leading authorities on drug testing. [continues 1064 words]
Professor Wants To Grow Drug At U Of T For Medicinal Use A University of Toronto professor wants to create a "marijuana bank" that doctors can draw from for their seriously ill patients. If Dr. Diane Riley is successful, it would mean the final major hurdle has been cleared for an Ottawa doctor who wants to legally prescribe marijuana for one of his patients. "I'd like a situation where physicians for the AIDS patients could come to U of T and say 'We need access to your marijuana,' " says Dr. Riley, who is an adjunct professor of behavioural science. [continues 605 words]
Marijuana 'no different than Aspirin,' Health Canada official says Health Canada is prepared to approve the use of marijuana as a legal medicine in emergency situations. Yesterday, the department turned down a request by an Ottawa doctor to provide an area AIDS patient with marijuana because of two technical flaws in the application. But Dann Michols, the man in charge of regulating all drugs and medical devices in Canada, says Health Canada is ready to approve the use of marijuana on a casebycase basis as long as these flaws are corrected. [continues 938 words]
Ottawa lawyers help doctors seek approval for drug to benefit AIDS patient A group of doctors and lawyers has made a groundbreaking application to Health Canada to allow an area AIDS patient to legally use marijuana as medicine. The application, if approved, will set a tremendous precedent in the battle to have marijuana legalized for the treatment of seriously ill patients. The group Drs. Don Kilby and Michele BrillEdwards, along with lawyers Eugene Oscapella and Glenn Gilmour made the application to Health Canada yesterday and will present their proposal at a news conference today on Parliament Hill. [continues 736 words]
A group of four doctors and lawyers met in Ottawa yesterday to come up with a strategy to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes in Canada. "We’ve built the framework of the plan, now we just have to flesh it out," Dr. Don Kilby says. "I’m very encouraged. I think the atmosphere is right in this country, there’s enough people who support legalizing marijuana for medicinal reasons. We just need to come up with the best means of doing so." [continues 221 words]
Meeting To Assess What's Legal Now, Need For New Laws A group of doctors will meet in Ottawa next week to come up with a strategy on how to provide marijuana to seriously ill patients in Canada. ``It'll be a preliminary discussion to see what we can do for patients under the existing laws and what changes might be made to make sure people who are sick get a medicine that helps them,'' says Dr. Don Kilby, one of the doctors who is organizing the meeting. [continues 729 words]
A Reform MP wants the government to decriminalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Jim Hart also says an RCMP investigation into Ottawa's medicinal marijuana network is a "misguided use of resources." "There is evidence marijuana can help ease the pain of people who are dying. The government should be compassionate," says Mr. Hart. "We need to point out to the government that maybe using police to investigate (AIDS and cancer patients) isn't the best use of resources." [continues 718 words]
Area police forces are taking no immediate action against members of a medicinal marijuana network that distribute the drug to seriously ill patients in the Ottawa area. In Sunday's Citizen, one marijuana grower and two patients one with AIDS, the other with Crohn's disease gave details of how they distributed and smoked marijuana. The article also included a local doctor, Don Kilby, who approves of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The RCMP is making no comment on whether it will investigate the network's activities. [continues 325 words]
Dr. Don Kilby recommends that Jean Charles Pariseau smoke marijuana to relieve some of his AIDS symptoms. Aubert Martins makes sure Mr. Pariseau can get his hands on the illegal drug. Jeremy Mercer reports. When Jean Charles Pariseau fell sick with the AIDS virus last fall, Aubert Martins felt compelled to help his dying friend. The roughly 30 pills Mr. Pariseau takes each day to fight the HIV made him nauseous and destroyed his appetite. By last October, Mr. Pariseau, who at 5 foot 2 inches once weighed 115 pounds, had dropped to a gaunt 82 pounds. Doctors gave the Hull man three months to live. [continues 2464 words]
Prohibition causes drug trade's corruption, violence, conference told By Jeremy Mercer, The Ottawa Citizen Calling the fear of illegal drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin "hysterical thinking," an Ottawa lawyer is calling on Canadian lawmakers to decriminalize all drugs for personal use. "Canada's drug policies are extraordinarily destructive and actually increase the problems associated with drugs instead of diminishing them," says Eugene Oscapella. "There are people out there who have a very strong vested interest in creating a fear of drugs and are not looking at the defective policies built around drugs. [continues 623 words]
