Health Canada unfairly restricting access to medical marijuana:

[Alison Myrden]

Here is my most recent Media in Canada...

 

Small mistake in the article I take up to 2 THOUSAND MILLIGRAMS OF morphine daily - not 2 GRAMS.

 

Love and a squish,

 

 

Ali

xx

 

 

 

 

Source: The Canadian Press

Link: http://tinyurl.com/2dlth3

 

December 3rd, 2007

 

 

Health Canada unfairly restricting access to medical marijuana:

lawyers

 

 

TORONTO - The federal government must loosen unfair restrictions

that are preventing seriously ill Canadians from obtaining the

medical marijuana they need to treat their debilitating illnesses,

lawyers for the sick argued Monday in Federal Court.

 

Health Canada has effectively established itself as the country's

sole legal provider of medical marijuana, but is providing an

expensive yet ineffective drug that doesn't meet the needs of many

patients who use it to treat chronic pain, seizures and other

ailments, Young said.

 

It has also shrugged off complaints about the drug, which costs

about $150 per ounce, and failed to improve the program by providing

patients with different strains designed for their specific medical

needs, Young told the court.

 

"It's not enough to say, 'Here's some pot for you, knock yourself

out.' That's not the way medicine is delivered," Young said outside

court Monday.

 

"You come up with the optimal product."

 

There are providers who want to supply various strains of the drug

at a lower cost for medical use, but they're prohibited from doing

so because government policy restricts them from supplying more than

one patient, Young added.

 

That's forcing medical marijuana patients to risk their own safety

to find the medicine they need, said Alison Myrden, 44, a medicinal

marijuana user for nearly eight years to treat multiple sclerosis

and tic doloureux, a neurological condition that causes extreme

facial pain.

 

"I'm constantly on the street because I'm chasing a strain that the

government doesn't offer," she said.

 

"So until the government offers more than one strain, people like

myself are forced back onto the street. I grow my own medicine, but

I still have a problem getting the strains that I need because

they're kept hostage in the black market."

 

Myrden, who uses about 28 to 30 grams of marijuana daily, said she

would be taking 32 pills and 2,000 grams of morphine each day if she

didn't have access to pot.

 

"I actually was given heroin and cocaine both for the pain in my

face, and neither of them worked better than certain strains of

cannabis that I can get on the street," she said.

 

Many of these problems are the result of a poorly

conceived "eleventh hour" government policy that was rushed into

place following a 2003 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that struck

down certain rules that limited access to medical marijuana, said

Young.

 

In response, Health Canada amended its policy to provide reasonable

access to marijuana for medical purposes, a change that came into

force that December.

 

Those rules allow medical marijuana users to either grow the product

themselves, have someone grow it for them or buy it from Health

Canada, which obtains the drug through its contract manufacturer,

Prairie Plant Systems Inc., which grows pot in Flin Flon, Man.

 

But previous governments have been uncomfortable with their role as

cannabis supplier. Former Liberal health minister Anne McLellan, an

unabashed opponent of the government's medical marijuana program,

was reluctant to provide the drug to patients.

 

"They are determined not to let an individual grow marijuana for

more than one person - determined," Young said.

 

"They want to have control over it and they said ultimately our

vision is that we'll be out of this business and that marijuana

products are available in pharmacies and we can wash our hands of

it."

 

Health Canada spokeswoman Joey Rathwell declined to comment Monday

on the case, as it is before the courts.

 

The case, which began in 2004, will be heard for two more days in

Federal Court. Some of the applicants have since died since the case

was first filed and their number has been reduced to 17 from the

original 27, the court heard.

 

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Edited December 7, 2007 by Alison Myrden

[WantDaChronic]

bloody politicians sounds like they are trying to make things harder on the worst affected people in society at every turn