cannabisnews.com: Paul Sullivan Paul Sullivan Posted by CN Staff on July 13, 2003 at 23:42:56 PT By Paul Sullivan Source: Globe and Mail I wonder if Anne McLellan ever feels liked getting stoned. I wouldn't blame her, especially after last week. Somehow, this nice person from Edmonton got stuck with the marijuana file. Bummer.So, last week, the Health Minister tried to comply with a court decision that struck down the government's medicinal-marijuana regulations by setting up doctors as dealers. The plan goes something like this: Health Canada will supply marijuana to the approximately 500 people cleared to use it for medicinal purposes — through their doctors. Cheap, too. Ottawa will sell patients a gram of Flin Flon Gold (the federal pot farm is located in an abandoned mine shaft in northern Manitoba) for $5, or a package of 30 seeds for $20 and they can grow their own.Minister McLellan's hand was forced when the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Ottawa's Medical Marijuana Access Regulations were unconstitutional because there was no legal distribution mechanism. The judge, who ruled in January, gave the government six months to do something, and the deadline expired on July 9. The minister's plan is — at best — an interim measure while Ottawa appeals the Ontario court decision. "Keep in mind," she told reporters, "that it was never our intention to supply the product."Now, of course, everyone's furious. Odd, isn't it, how a drug that makes you stare at the ceiling for hours and think about ice cream and how nice it would be to have some, causes such anxiety.The doctors are furious. The Canadian Medical Association is asking doctors not to deal in grass because the government hasn't made the case for the safety of medical marijuana. The minister must be asking herself: What's with the doctors? They deal in billions of dollars worth of psychoactive brain rippers on a daily basis without so much as wagging their tongue depressors, and they're freaked out over dealing a little boo?The doctors say they're worried about theft from the dispensary, which brings to mind the old Reefer Madness scare — crazed potheads breaking into doctors' offices to get a fix. Your average pothead probably has a much more reliable source of supply, and anyway, is too busy watching the ceiling to budge.The anti-drug warriors are furious. It's all part of the "slippery slope" as Alliance MP Randy White likes to call it. Before long, people will be sitting in the middle of intersections painting flowers on each other's bare midriffs and there will be nothing we can do about it.Sergeant Glen Hayden, an Edmontonian of a different stripe (three stripes, to be precise), told a local newspaper the government "is putting the cart before the horse," and "there are no medical tests or scientific foundation proving benefits." While Mr. White and Sgt. Hayden should worry about the long-term impact of thinking in clichés, they really have nothing to worry about on the benefits of medicinal marijuana.A 1999 report called Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, concluded: "there are some limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking marijuana for medical uses." Specifically, the data "indicate a potential therapeutic value for cannabinoid drugs, particularly for symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation." Anyone for ice cream?The full report, the result of two years of research funded by the White House drug policy office (!) into all existing data on marijuana's therapeutic use, is available for scrutiny online at: http://bob.nap.edu/books/0309071550/htmlIt's a great piece of work and, on the strength of it, the U.S. government has authorized seven people to use medical marijuana. No use running off half-cocked.Anyway, the medical marijuana advocates are furious, too. Hilary Black, of something called the B.C. Compassion Club, "Canada's largest medical marijuana buyers' club," says Ottawa's pot distribution plan is a "smokescreen." The health minister, Ms. Black suspects, is pretending to comply with the court order, but knows doctors won't play along. Paranoid? Perhaps, but Ms. Black gets points for the most appropriate cliché.There's little doubt the minister is stalling for time, as the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the lower court decision. She can't expect much different from the Supreme Court of Canada, the most liberal court this side of Sweden.Back in the real world, people continue to smoke dope. According to one survey, Alberta teens are more likely to smoke marijuana than cigarettes: 42 per cent of Grade 10 to 12 students have tried marijuana at least once in the last year, while only 24.6 per cent tried cigarettes. Also, people continue to get busted — in 2001, 11,000 pot-related arrests were made in B.C. alone.Police are worried an unholy alliance of the Hell's Angels and Vietnamese gangs are taking over. Although their prices aren't nearly as good as Ottawa's, they don't have to rely on doctors to distribute the product.After such a week, Ms. McLellan must be tempted to try some of her own medicine. My advice, Minister? Just sit back, roll a giant spliff, fire it up, and let your mind float downstream. According to a recent study at the University of California at San Diego, smoking marijuana does not cause permanent brain damage — unlike drinking alcohol. And if your "interim" plan to distribute medical marijuana is any indication, you're unfit to operate heavy machinery anyway. From Monday's Globe and Mail Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Paul SullivanPublished: Monday, July 14, 2003 Copyright: 2003 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.com/Related Articles & Web Site:The Compassion Clubhttp://www.thecompassionclub.org/Giving a Graceless Okay To Medical Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16818.shtmlOttawa MDs Won't Handle Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16842.shtmlCanada To Supply Marijuana To Seriously Ill http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16809.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by Dankhank on July 14, 2003 at 09:48:22 PT Ltr to Globe and Mail re: sick and using Cannabis Sirs and Madams,I'm sure some editor vetted this horrendous violation of many sick Canadians lot in life. The "story" listed below is an example of what is wrong with "journalism" today. To make fun of any medical condition for any reason denigrates ALL of us who condone such behabior.When my father was dying of Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS or 'Lou Gehrig's Disease, and was having trouble walking I guess Mr Paul Sullivan figures Dad was a "crip or spaz?"When my Dad took some Cannabis one day and then laughed and smiled for hours, ate a large T-Bone steak and perhaps forgot about his impending death for an hour or two, I don't think he stared at the ceiling once.I hereby declare war on any who think a sick person wants Cannabis for any reason other than what we ALL want medicine for ... to feel better, or get better.When my mother-in-law was dying of cancer, loaded up with narcotics and barely coherent I wanted to tell her husband about Cannabis and how it may allow her to forgo most or all of the narcotics, allowing him to have good conversations with her instead of saying "yes Barbara" to whatever she mumbled. I couldn't, since I probably would have been banned from the house. Thanks to the prohibitionists and their, (new concept), fellow-travellers for reason, compassion and love to be subserved to politics. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Virgil on July 14, 2003 at 07:56:20 PT You have got to be kidding me Somehow, this nice person from Edmonton got stuck with the marijuana file.RC calls Sweet Anne "Walters in drag." She is an evil doer if ever there was one and a fraud as a public servant. If the aliens come and clear things out she might find herself at the end of a hemp rope. No reason to read on. We have a work of fiction spread as a means of mixing the messages. I would start my description of Sweet Anne as a murderer. Isn't that bad enough before you start adding treason. Think of the children and stop this rubbish. You are making *sses out of yourself for us and posterity. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on July 14, 2003 at 07:25:25 PT Go Kegan! I appreciate your passion! I call it righteous indignation. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Kegan on July 14, 2003 at 07:23:17 PT I am fed up I have been waiting for 2 weeks for one of these assholes to cross that line, so I could launch this campaign.Bad enough I am in pain all the time, now I have to be made FUN OF by so-called professionals.The terms "pothead" and "stoner" and the like.... I demand thet they get shelved. Nobody but NOBODY would stand for that.Would you call someone who has to use 10 T 3's a day a "junky"? No.Would you call Stephen Hawking a "retard" just because he can't speak? No.This is just the beginning.Mountain! Get the HELL out of my way! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on July 14, 2003 at 06:50:53 PT Great one Kegan Someone has to bring these sensationalist idiots back to reality. This isn't a laughing matter - not like making fun of the government for buying $5000 toilet seats, this is life-and-death for thousands of people.To me, medical marijuana and the way our "modern", "advanced" society deals with it is frightening. We're supposed to be so technologically advanced and politically correct these day - we offend no one and are fair to all! But as a group, we can't even provide a little herb to the sick people - a plant that should be free and easily accessible to all. That could be accessible for all with prehistoric technology and farming methods. It's a red flag that despite some of our advances, the darker side of humanity will always be trying to pull us back into the primitive gutter of barbarianism.I would be OK with the constant stream of denigrating jokes if they just also injected the tiniest dose of truth into the article. Couldn't he just mention that prescription drugs cause 100,000 deaths per year in the US, and cannabis has never caused a single death, even though millions of American high school and college kids have been desparately trying to huff and puff themselves into oblivion for the last 30 years. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Kegan on July 14, 2003 at 05:59:24 PT Christine Lowe speaks out! Sullivan's comments regarding "potheads" and "staring at the ceiling" are disgusting, offensive, and humiliating.I suffer from Epilepsy, and post traumatic stress disorder (among other things), and cannabis has saved my life. Without cannabis, I am not "staring at the ceiling", I am face down on the carpet (often having the skin scrubbed off of my face) with convulsive grand mal seizures, while lying in a pool of urine. Sound dignified? It's not. Every one of my teeth is cracked, and my tongue has been damaged due to the ferocity of these seizures. You could watch me having one at http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1811.html if you'd like.Growing up, I was the focus of much derision from classmates due to seizures, being called names like "spaz", and even being physically abused by fellow students. And it hasn't stopped there. "Respectable" adults do it constantly, sometimes even in their nationally syndicated columns. In 1982, I was put me on pharmaceuticals, and as a result, I spent 20 years in a brain fog because of it. My body will no longer tolerate these poisons, so I now have 3 choices at my disposal: Brain surgery, cannabis, or death. It may sound like an exaggeration, but if your "journalists" would do some more fact-checking, they would discover that thousands of Canadians die every YEAR due to complications surrounding epilepsy and the medications that treat it.In the past year, Cannabis has helped me get my life back, yet day after day I am the subject of public ridicule by the likes of Paul Sullivan, and other journalists. Not only do I still have to deal with a litany of medical problems, I have to worry myself sick about where I can acquire my medicine, and worry about when someone will break into my home, be they criminals or police. I don't know which camp to fear more.Meanwhile my own government is taking extensive measures to make my life even more difficult, and dragging their heels when ordered by the courts to help me, and "journalists" make quips about it. Just how much more societal shame am I expected to endure for a neurological condition that I was born with.Just when I thought the media was starting to "shoot down the middle" on this topic, and taking medical marijuana seriously, I read this insulting drivel. It makes me very sad to have "journalists" taking "pot shots" at helpless sick people (How's THAT for a cliché, Paul?)On behalf of everyone who uses cannabis as medicine, I demand a public, written an apology, immediately.Sincerely, Christine LoweArtistIllustratorActivistCo-Founder and Acting Vice President of the National Capital Compassion SocietyEpilepsy, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder SuffererCo-Author of Mommy's Funny Medicine http://www.salvagingelectrons.com/mfm/"Freak Of Nature"Survivor [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Kegan on July 14, 2003 at 04:32:58 PT Russell Draws Line In Sand I sent these two letters off this morning. I simply will not be subject to this journalistic BULLSHIT anymore. So I sent this.....Dear Paul, I loved your article in the Globe And Mail today! If I could, I'd like to comment.Your first wee mistake: "Somehow, this nice person from Edmonton...."If she were nice, she would have done the right thing last year. She is not nice. She is an evil puppet controlled by the Big Pharm."- through their doctors. Cheap, too. "Yeah. Cheap. Except no patiet in this country would pay $5 a gram for shwaggy 10% ditchweed like that. Where's the 25% stuff she said was "too strong". Give us some of that stuff. The court ordered her to give us MEDICINE, not mulch......."Keep in mind," she told reporters, "that it was never our intention to supply the product." ......The only thing close to honest this woman has said in a long time. Every time McLellan opens her mouth, manure falls out."Odd, isn't it, how a drug that makes you stare at the ceiling for hours........"That is a riot, Paul. Hey.... make fun of me some more, I love it. I love being ridiculed for having a neurological condition. Make fun of the way I walk too, if that will make you feel better. Or my room mate's seizures. What a professional you are, Paul. Really clever stuff. Get this man a Pulitzer!"Your average pothead probably has a much more reliable source of supply.", True enough. But for now, could you refer to us as "medical users" or perhaps "sick and dying individuals" ? Just for a while...?"....and anyway, is too busy watching the ceiling to budge."You slay me, Sullivan! You are an absolute scream! - Hey! Make fun of how I can't digest food properly, too, please. Oh, and my crushing depression. Please ridicule that, too. My self-esteem is beginning to skyrocket, and I don't want to trip out!"Just sit back, roll a giant spliff, fire it up, and let your mind float downstream."It is journalistic integrity like this, Paul, that is making the Citizens Of Canada finally take us so seriously.Thank you, from the bottom of my broken heart.Sarcastically,Russell BarthMedical Marijuana UserPS. I am amazed I was able to pull myself away from the ceiling to actually read this article.______________________________I sent THIS one to the editor......... Re: Paul Sullivan's Article On Medical Marijuana"Stare at the ceiling"? Yeah...... Pretty funny stuff.It is sarcasm like this, that is causing continued misunderstanding about cannabis on the part of the general Canadian public.I for one demand that your "journalists" would refrain from putting this kind of spin on their stories, as it is causing the general Canadian public to not take us seriously, and is causing mental and emotional harm to thousands of sick canadians.I am a medical Marijuana user, and if I don't use cannabis, I stare at the ceiling all day, pausing only briefly to clutch my abdomen as it spasms painfully.Every day, I not only have to worry about my health, and the health of my room mate and other sick friends, but I also have to nurse a broken heart. My heart is broken by the fact that, because of idiotic comments like Sullivan's, the good people of Canada consider me an idiot for not using poisonous chemicals to fight my medical conditions. Funny, isn't it, that you never hear journalist use terms like "pansy" or "fag" anymore, because the backlash from the gay community would be huge, and rightly so. Or if he were to refer to the mentally challenged, or an epilepsy sufferer as a "retard" or a "spaz", he would be in even more trouble. But why is it is still okay for these "journalists" to refer to the sick and dying as "stoners" and "potheads"? I have a wheelchair that I use for most of my getting around. So I guess it is okay to call me a "cripple" or "gimp", too?I for one, will not stand for it. I am, right here, right now, drawing a line in the sand: Journalists in Canada better STOP making fun of us. It is downright disgusting. On behalf of medical cannabis users worldwide, I absolutely DEMAND an oppolgy for this. IMMEDIATELY!!!!!Sullivan's article was derisive and insulting. Please take greater measures in the future to ensure it doesn't happen again! Russell Barth Medical Marijuana User MMAR Card Holder Fibromyalgia, Anxiety, Depression, and Arthritis Sufferer Poverty-Stricken, Disability-Pension Recipient Actvist Artist Co-Author Of The World's First Children's Book On Medical Marijuana (Mommy's Funny Medicine http://www.salvagingelectrons.com/mfm/) ______________________-Now, if you will excuse me, I am gonna go line the bottom of my birdcage with this article. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment