cannabisnews.com: Pot Now Available for Minor Illnesses





Pot Now Available for Minor Illnesses
Posted by CN Staff on February 04, 2003 at 08:24:50 PT
By Susan Ruttan, Journal Health Writer 
Source: Edmonton Journal 
Minor physical conditions from writer's cramp to colour blindness are enough to qualify now for home delivery of medical marijuana -- with no doctor's prescription needed.A year and a half ago, the federal government passed regulations saying medical marijuana would be available only to people with a serious illness, and only with a physician's permission.
Such legal restrictions appear to have wilted.Three weeks ago, an Ontario judge declared them unconstitutional.Police disagree and local suppliers remain careful, although some provide pot on recommendations from practitioners such as massage therapists.Mark Johnson, a 29-year-old Edmonton entrepreneur, is entering the field with his new Canadian Compassion Club.Johnson said he has a secure supply of the product and is promising "fast, free-delivery service Canada-wide.""People put marijuana down because it was looked at as a drug at one time, but it's not," Johnson said. "It's 100-per-cent herb."His new venture already has competition. The Krieger Foundation, founded by Calgary marijuana advocate Grant Krieger and his wife Marie, supplies marijuana around the country and to a client in Hawaii.The Kriegers have recently opened an Edmonton branch, run by a former nurse and hepatitis C sufferer out of her home. In Montreal, the federal Marijuana Party has opened an Internet site offering to mail marijuana to Canadians with any of nearly 200 ailments including hiccups, whiplash and colour blindness.The party won a court ruling in late December opening the door to such sales. The judge concluded that since the federal government has failed to provide a supply of medicinal marijuana, patients have a right to look elsewhere."There's a growing interest out there," Marie Krieger said in an interview from Calgary. She and her husband hope to open a store soon in Calgary.The Krieger Foundation may have a marketing edge in the growing competition, thanks to Marie Krieger's creation of a "doc bar" -- a cereal bar made with marijuana.It delivers the drug without the necessity of smoking. Krieger named it after a client who is a physician and a big fan of the cereal bar.The doctor's 80-year-old mother is using the marijuana bars for her osteoarthritis, Krieger said."She's off her morphine and she eats doc bars all day."Krieger said that because Alberta physicians won't order medicinal marijuana for their patients, her group uses other "licensed practitioners" for the referral -- people such as massage therapists, chiropractors and reflexologists.Johnson said his service will require a doctor's recommendation. However, when informed of the Kriegers' approach, he seemed less sure about the requirement.Johnson, who calls himself a business consultant and private investor, said he uses marijuana for chronic pain and other problems: "I have fatigue. I can't sleep. I have another problem: I don't eat. That (marijuana) helps me right there."The medical marijuana business isn't completely out in the open.Edmonton police say selling medicinal marijuana must be done by the strict letter of the current law, which means the seller must be federally licensed."Anything outside that would be breaking the law," police spokesman Dean Parthenis said.Sending marijuana through the mail still constitutes trafficking, Alberta RCMP spokesman Const. Al Fraser said.Krieger said the foundation "does everything very, very discreetly through the mail."She drove to Edmonton on Sunday with two ounces of marijuana for clients here, she said. Given the price of gas, the trip isn't exactly a paying proposition, she said.Note: Court rulings have chipped away at federal restrictions. Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)Author: Susan Ruttan, Journal Health Writer Published: Tuesday, February 04, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Edmonton JournalContact: letters thejournal.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmUsing Marijuana To Alleviate Pain Hardly Criminal http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12985.shtmlMarijuana Crusader Charged Again http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12953.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by p4me on February 04, 2003 at 09:36:09 PT
Why was it made illegal in the first place?
There wasn't a reason to make it illegal in the first place and there is no reason to make it legal now. When the article does not mention last year's Senate report calling for legalization, it is clear that nonsense will replace facts and good sense.I wanted to mention a link that came out of Rebecca Knight's last work at buzzflash.com because of a link in it- http://www.buzzflash.com/southern/03/02/03.html The linked article is found in the copied paragraph below and goes to the Institute for Public Accuracy website.For the most complete dissection of the Bush State of the Union address please read this one, if you read no other. From the Institute for Public Accuracy: 
"Responses to Bush’s 2003 'State of the Union' Address"
http://www.accuracy.org/2003/The paragraph that is copied below from accuracy.org basically says the US could build factories to make medicine for AIDS in Africa but they would rather hand over billions in taxpayer money to the US pill companies.Patel: "This policy is disingenuous to its core. Under existing World Trade Organization legislation, countries can already 'compulsorily license' drugs, waiving the patent protection of pharmaceutical companies in the interests of public health. It is, in fact, U.S.-sponsored legislation at the World Trade Organization that prevents those countries in the third world which lack the production capacities to produce generic retroviral drugs from importing them from other countries. This compassion for the third world doesn't pan out either. In December, the United States was alone among members of the World Trade Organization in its opposition to an expanded list of diseases which waives reimportation rules. What looks like a moment of heartfelt generosity on the part of the Bush regime is, in fact, a hard-nosed recognition that pharmaceutical companies around the world aren't winning the PR battle to justify their monopolies. To put it more simply, this is a $15 billion subsidy to the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, in lieu of political battles lost at the WTO by U.S. negotiators. It remains to be seen quite how much of this new-found largesse will go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which last year was on the verge of bankruptcy." The whole notion that we should worry about cannabis is nonsense. There is an article up at Commondreams.org titled, "Polluted Bodies" by Ruth Rosen and it seems fitting that the San Francisco Chronicle published it yesterday- http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0203-04.htm Chemical companies can introduce dangerous chemicals that spread throughout the air and water without any research to join the PCBs and dioxins dispersed everywhere and accumulating in our bodies throught the air we breathe and the foodwe eat and water we drink. We all are being poisoned and does the government or media seem concerned about it? The last paragraph of the article is copied below.No one wants his or her body to be another pollution site. Still, lobbyists for the chemical industry resist further regulation. "As a result," says Martin, "we're living in a toxic stew and they are, quite literally, getting away with murder." 
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