Two professors win right to toke up at work

[cranky]

By Natasha Elkington

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Tue Nov 14, 2006 1:30pm ET

 

 

TORONTO (Reuters) - The use of medical marijuana has given two Toronto professors the right to something that many students could only dream of -- access to specially ventilated rooms where they can indulge in peace.

 

The two, at the esteemed University of Toronto and at York University to the north of the city, suffer from chronic medical conditions that some doctors say can be eased by smoking marijuana. They are among nearly 1,500 Canadians who have won the right to use the drug for health reasons.

 

Using human rights legislation, the two petitioned their employers for the right to light up in the workplace. They faced a legal struggle, but the universities eventually agreed.

 

"Without the medication, I am disabled and I'm not able to carry out meaningful and valuable, productive work," said York University criminology professor Brian MacLean, who suffers from a severe form of degenerative arthritis.

 

"It helps me to maintain my mobility as a physical problem but it also helps me to keep the pain at a distance so I can focus on my work," MacLean told Reuters.

 

MacLean's three-month battle to persuade York University to provide a light-up room, finally obtained this month, is short in comparison to University of Toronto philosophy professor Doug Hutchinson's year-long struggle.

 

"It took Professor MacLean a season, three full months, to get a similar accommodation and I believe that in Canada now, we should hope that the next person who gets the accommodation should not take more than a month," Hutchinson told Reuters.

 

MacLean says the three-month response time from the university put him in a vulnerable position both medically and professionally, as he smoked joints on the edge of campus, and thus on the edge of the law.

He now uses a special vaporizer that he says allows him to absorb the medical components of marijuana without the residues that come from smoking a joint.

 

Health Canada figures show that 1,492 people are authorized to possess marijuana for medical purposes in Canada, although it's not clear how the law on using the drug tallies with Ontario provincial legislation that bans smoking in the workplace.

 

Canada, where laws on possession of marijuana are much less tough than those in the United States, has allowed the use of marijuana for medical purposes since 2001.

 

The government grows the drug in part of a zinc mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba, and sells it to authorized users at C$5 ($4.40) a gram.

Edited November 15, 2006 by cranky

[Shithappens]

Cheers for the read man!!!

 

The government grows the drug in part of a zinc mine in Flin Flon, Manitoba, and sells it to authorized users at C$5 ($4.40) a gram.

 

HAHA wouldnt that be a good job growing for the goverment...What qualification you need for that ?? (Some major indoor grow galleries?? )

[Stoney]

i think i might put my resume in

 

then agiain how could u do an anonamous interview

 

cheerz :Dj:

[Indycar]

Lucky bugga's, good on em...

[wildflower]

id rather be fukn token it before im old and crooked!

[Budman2012]

yep , good for them and all that .. I'm just thinkin ..

If they argued their case under Human rights legislation (to actually smoke up in the workplace no less) .. Don't we all have equal Human rights???

Does Canada have different types of Human than the rest of the civilized world??

 

I'm not happy for these guys .. they'll be happy enough for themselves .. what BS that this is not just normal .. but what? .. they get their own "well ventilated" Stoners Pad aswell?? .. at a school no less? ..

 

FFS! ... There are people who can no longer work let alone function properly .. and still they proceed to hold back the true remedies ..

 

Anyway , they (Pigz) all better fucken hurry up and change their ways soon ... No need for them to seem more stupid than they already are ..

 

Budman

[WantDaChronic]

good one them, but i read that mj grown by the government is of low quality and mainly stems, leaf and seeds

[wildflower]

coz they like it...

you know the gov..wants to grow it nice an pooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[Chev]

yep , good for them and all that .. I'm just thinkin ..

If they argued their case under Human rights legislation (to actually smoke up in the workplace no less) .. Don't we all have equal Human rights???

Does Canada have different types of Human than the rest of the civilized world??

 

I'm not happy for these guys .. they'll be happy enough for themselves .. what BS that this is not just normal .. but what? .. they get their own "well ventilated" Stoners Pad aswell?? .. at a school no less? ..

 

FFS! ... There are people who can no longer work let alone function properly .. and still they proceed to hold back the true remedies ..

 

Anyway , they (Pigz) all better fucken hurry up and change their ways soon ... No need for them to seem more stupid than they already are ..

 

Budman

Good on em. If you can fucken do it, why not? You would Budman

Being a med user, I'm happy to see anyone win a bit of slack with MJ. As for the laws, canada have pretty relaxed medicinal MJ laws. Therefore, I suppose they could have more sway using the human rights act (yes, we all have the same one) than we would trying it in Oz. Wouldn't happen, not yet anyway.

[Zaknefain]

I live in BC. the government is always talking about legalizing it... its pretty lax. My buddy got caught by the cops with bags and 24.5 grams, all they did was take his name and the bud; hasn't heard from them yet. However, my friend told a cop that he was being a jerk and got arrested. Truly that shows that marijuana on Vancouver Island is a common thing and the cops dont take the effort to do anything about it.