cannabisnews.com: Crusader for Pot Dies After MS Fight





Crusader for Pot Dies After MS Fight
Posted by CN Staff on December 29, 2003 at 07:46:36 PT
By Patrick Moloney, Free Press Reporter
Source: London Free Press 
Londoner Lynn Harichy, whose efforts helped to legalize medicinal marijuana use in Canada, died Christmas Day after a lengthy battle with multiple sclerosis. She was 42. As part of a national network of lobbyists, Harichy was a longtime crusader for the legalization of pot for medicinal uses. She once lit up a joint on the steps of London police station, an act that led to her arrest. Two years ago, following the efforts of pot crusaders like Harichy across Canada, the federal government eased the law on pot use for those suffering from serious illnesses. 
The Office of Cannabis Medical Access was established to regulate use of medicinal marijuana in cases where it would have some medical benefit. Harichy's efforts to that end leave a proud legacy, says her brother, Wayne Fortnum. "A lot of people when they go, they didn't leave anything behind. She has something. I'm proud that she did what she thought she needed to do." Harichy ran the Cannabis Compassion Club, which supplied pot to sick people. She served more than 600 people who suffered from such diseases as MS, AIDS, cancer, epilepsy and chronic pain. As the rules began loosening around marijuana use for the seriously ill, Harichy once told The Free Press why she started the club. "The people who bought from us just couldn't go out on the street," she said. "It would have been too dangerous for them." Despite the criminal charges it caused her, and the social embarrassment she once admitted to feeling, Harichy continued pushing the cause until her MS began to take its harsh toll over the past year, her brother noted. "She was dedicated to her cause," Fortnum said. "When she got her mind (set) to do something, she did it." Source: London Free Press (CN ON)Author: Patrick Moloney, Free Press ReporterPublished: December 29, 2003Copyright: 2003 The London Free Press Contact: letters lfpress.comWebsite: http://www.lfpress.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmMedicinal Pot Users Hail Wonders of Weed http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10606.shtmlPot-Shop Operator Pleads Guilty To Traffickinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread3168.shtmlCrown Drops Bid To Prosecute Pot Crusader http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread3048.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on December 29, 2003 at 16:41:28 PT
sukoi
I'm not sure how to do what you ask. Most people will donate if they feel they can and should. Trying to organize it would be very hard. It's one of those things that seems easy to do but in reality it's really hard.
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Comment #9 posted by purplethumbplum on December 29, 2003 at 16:30:30 PT:
The New Pearl Harbor
The Title Should Be THIRD REICH TWO THE CORPORATE AMERICAN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION!!! The Cover Have BUSH Shacking HITLERS Hand.
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Comment #8 posted by sukoi on December 29, 2003 at 15:56:29 PT
FoM
As always, you are quite welcome. I'll be sending a small contribution to MPP soon, can anyone figure out a way for it to be a big contribution from all of us?
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on December 29, 2003 at 12:51:07 PT
sukoi
Thank you for the link. They just raided a pain clinic a few towns away from us. It was big news in their newspaper. They implicated a few doctors too. Who I feel sorry for the most are the patients who are dependent on a narcotic. They will be cut off and it won't be easy for them. I bet some patients could turn to heroin because of raids like the one we just had and others.
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Comment #6 posted by mayan on December 29, 2003 at 12:38:30 PT
How Many?
This is sad. How many people have lost everything they have in the pursuit of just one more day? How many more must lose? May their sacrifices never be in vain. God rest her soul.On an unrelated note, Dennis Kucinich is the only candidate with the courage to tell it like it is...Kucinich calls terror alert a government scare tactic:
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/7581356.htmThe way out is the way in...New Allies: THE NEW PEARL HARBOR -- Was the Bush Administration Complicit in 9/11?
http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=34&mode=thread&order=0&thold=09/11 Visibility Project:
http://septembereleventh.org/9/11 Prior Knowledge/Government Involvement Archive:
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/archiveprior_knowledge
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Comment #5 posted by sukoi on December 29, 2003 at 12:37:16 PT
The DEA is at it again!
Worried Pain Doctors Decry Prosecutions"I never, ever imagined something like this was possible," said Hassman, 47, a Cornell and New York University graduate. "When they came into the office to arrest me, it was like a bad movie that wouldn't end." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37015-2003Dec28.html
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 29, 2003 at 10:06:42 PT
Rest in Peace Lynn
I only met Lynn once or twice in a chat a few years ago. I hope her family is holding up. I wish I had wise words to say but I can't think of any except I'm sorry.
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on December 29, 2003 at 09:58:14 PT:
Ave atque vale, Lynn Harichy
That's "hail and farewell" for those lucky enough to have dodged Latin.I didn't get to know her very well, just chats on Drugsenese.org's room, but her story is one of terrible travails. She lost just about everything in the fight, and the 'authorities' did all they could to destroy her.To destroy a woman whose only crime was to help others in need.Another good one gone.
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on December 29, 2003 at 09:07:03 PT
The story of the year
The story of the year came to us on November 27th in an article from the Independent that appears here- http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17874.shtml It announced that the long anticipated introduction of extracts made from cannabis plants grown on British soil would not come in December as many had hoped/thought.Had the Canadian Supreme Court struck down cannabis prohibition as unconstitutional it would have been the story of the year. Absent that, the story of the year would have concerned GW extracts had they made it to market, had they. And in some ways it is a bigger story that they did not come when there is so much pain and so much experiencee and research and so much need in the MS community for their products. There products are the same cannabinoids from the same plants that is being used by the people in this article and the people that eat the chocolate furnished by thc4MS. The only difference is that the GW extracts were consistant in their content of THC and in an alcohol solution. The solution thing may have variation.So we have thousands of years of history on cannabis use in general, a population of people that use cannabis for their MS and cry for it, and a company in the business of supplying it that researched it for MS for years that met all the requirements for introduction.Medicines in this country go through on a speed track now that the pill companies contribute to the funding of the FDA and have taken over the job of regulating themselves. They can have known side effects that can be quite severe and still go through with many unknown issues. The public then becomes their experiment where they find out just how harmful their medicines can be.Then we have cannabis. It sets the scale of 1 in a scale of 1 to anything on safety. People with MS have the casing surrounding their nerves eaten away as the body attacks itself and can be in severe pain that have tried everything else and have come to find cannabis. It is the history that led GW to go into business in the first place and the well known role cannabis played in MS that had them focus their first use on the terrible disease of MS.The government of the UK did not have to permit all uses of these extracts when they went on the market. They could have limited it to MS alone or even the diseases recognized by The Office of Cannabis Medical Access. Here they are telling people on cannabis that they cannot have cannabis because you just cannot. It is absolutely bizare.I liken it to seeing how wonderful railroads are in transportation. When applied to the United States there is significant use of railroads and the nation takes to binding itself with a transcontinental railroad. It is a railroad like all others but it special. So now the railroad is built that can carry a train for east to west and has been driven on in its construction and still in sections but the government says there can be no transcontinentaling because it is not yet ready.The story of the GW extracts shows us the absurdity that prohibition has brought us and how government services are actually disservices to countries even at the expense of all mankind. We see the hidden forces that want this prohibition at work here and we see all things good and expected pushed away by that force.It all needs to be taken in the context that know one thought to criminalize cannabis throughout the English world until Americans said everyone should criminalize it. All of this should have been researched by now and if there were no big industrialization of cannabis products, it would only be because they were free already. The same hidden powers that say let there be no polls on cannabis in 2003 can be unseen in this delay of an extract on what should be a completely legal plant anyway.That is my story of the year and I am sticking to it.
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Comment #1 posted by Gary Storck on December 29, 2003 at 08:24:13 PT
A great loss
Sad to see Lynn Harichy pass at such a young age. I got to know Lynn somewhat from DrugSense chat where she was a regular up until a year or two ago.Every year is a tough year for MS patients. 2003 was tough for MS patients who were medical cannabis activists -- Lynn Harichy and Cheryl Miller are both gone afteer years of heroic activism.But, while we miss them greatly, their work lives on in the MS Patients Union, a new voice for MS patients who want to find out about the healing powers of medical cannabis. Check it out!
MS Patients Union
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