medical marijuana

By: SUE HICKEY, The Telegram

Grand Falls-Windsor - Meet David Shea and you might notice the skin on his face and hands is taut and pale. It's not for lack of time spent outdoors, but because of an uncommon condition known as scleroderma - a chronic systemic autoimmune disease, mainly of the skin.

Up to 40,000 Canadians have the disease, which can make life very uncomfortable.

That's why the Grand Falls-Windsor native, who now lives in Halifax, promotes the use of medical marijuana to the public as well as to health professionals - not as a way to get high, but as a safe drug that can alleviate the symptoms of various diseases.

He is the head of patient advocacy with the organization Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana (www.mumm.ca). Read more »

By Bill Phillips, Abbotsford News

He doesn’t like constantly being thought of as a criminal.

And, ironically, he doesn’t want his name published because if we did, the criminal element in town would immediately target him.

He is one of 29 people in Prince George with a licence to grow marijuana for medical purposes. He fought throat cancer. He’s had dozens of rounds of chemo and radiation. Marijuana helps him.

One of the downsides of beating a tough cancer is that it changes you. He explained to me that there comes a point when you realize that, even though you’ve beaten back the disease, you’re not going to be the same person you were.

In his case, his cancer left him unable to produce saliva and difficulty swallowing. Because of that, he was unable to sleep through the night. Read more »

BY ROXANNE HOOPER, LANGLEY ADVANCE

Armed with a search warrant, police raided Langley’s Medical Marijuana Dispensary of all its cash and drugs Tuesday.

The downtown Langley facility is operated by Randy Caine, owner of two Hempyz novelty stores. He is licensed by Health Canada to provide medical pot, and back on April 1 moved the dispensary services out the back room of his original Fraser Highway store into a secure office space a few blocks away.

All the stock – including the marijuana in various forms – were seized, along with the day’s cash. But member files were left untouched and intact, said manager Carol Gwilt. Read more »

By JILLIAN FOLLERT, Durham Region

OSHAWA -- It's becoming a regular occurrence for Ben Fudge.

The Oshawa man -- who is a federally exempt medical marijuana user and a vocal advocate on the issue -- has been asked to leave so many places that he's lost count.

But he wasn't expecting to have his entire family booted from Oshawa's Robert McLaughlin Gallery as a result of his medical marijuana use.

He says that's exactly what happened last week, after a security guard at the gallery saw him smoking marijuana near the building.

Mr. Fudge says he was on his way to a July 12 accessibility advisory committee meeting at City Hall -- which sits adjacent to the gallery -- and stopped to smoke so his pain would be managed for the next few hours. Read more »

Beyond Prohibition Foundation

Three days after North Island Compassion Club director Ernie Yacub wrote a letter to the editor critical of increased police spending in the face of historically low crime rates, and nearly 5 months after a previous raid which has yet to result in charges, Comox Valley RCMP have again raided the facility. Read more »

By Tom Sandborn, The Tyee

Vancouver’s trendy Yaletown neighborhood saw its first dispensary for medical marijuana opened on July 14, as medical cannabis advocates claim that Health Canada is implementing “drastic plans” to restrict access across Canada. The new facility, Yaletown Medical, located at #153-1020 Mainland Street, invited media and the general public in for tours on July 14.

“Dispensaries like Yaletown Medical serve a vital need for both patients and doctors in our community,” medical marijuana activist and dispensary spokesman Jacob Hunter told the Tyee. “Especially in the downtown core, many patients do not have access to a vehicle and their illness precludes long commutes. Read more »

By: Kelly McParland, National Post

Canada and the U.S. appear to be going in opposite directions when it comes to marijuana and its legalities.

In June a B.C. man was awarded $30,000 by the B.C. Supreme Court, to cover the cost of growing marijuana to relieve pain resulting from a botched back operation. The man, Michael Joinson, asked for enough money for a “lifetime supply,” but received only a fraction of the sum after the judge ruled much of his consumption was for “recreational purposes” and limited him to Health Canada’s “safe dosage” limit. Read more »

BY BARB SWEET, ST. JOHN TELEGRAM

ST. JOHN'S - A St. John's man had a shipment of medical marijuana confiscated when he went to pick up a package at a courier outlet and was met instead by the RCMP.

Richard Oakley, who tested positive for HIV 25 years ago, moved back to the province from British Columbia three months ago to be near family.

He has approval from Health Canada to take medical marijuana.

He said he received the first package since coming home without a problem from his designated grower in B.C.

But last week, when he tried to claim his second delivery of marijuana and marijuana-laced chocolates, Purolator told him to come back Monday. That's when he was met with the RCMP officer. Read more »

The following is an example of a letter you can send to Health Canada as they take feedback from Canadians across the country regarding changing the MMAR (Canada medical marijuana program, the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations). Thanks to WhyProhibition.ca for this great resource!

Feel free to use this letter in full or part, and please help share this link on your social networks (facebook, Twitter, etc)! We need everyone to tell Health Canada about what changes to the program are necessary while they are accepting this information. Read more »

BY BRANDON PARKER, NORTH SHORE NEWS

Dear Editor:

As a director for Re-Leaf Dispensary, I can say our society and our patients were deeply disappointed by the District of North Vancouver's knee-jerk reaction to outright ban medicinal dispensaries in their boundaries.

All the supporters and evidence presented to them would not have made a difference to their position of enacting their uncompassionate bylaw.

Knowing how much support we have, residents can truly have their say in the November civic elections, and I encourage people to do so.

The federal answer to fixing all of this is a new set of proposed regulations that strip away the rights of the patient and reduce access, not the other way around. Read more »