From London Ontario Free Press letters@lfpress.com
http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html
April 17, 1998
By John Miner—Free Press Reporter
(Ed. note: Even in Canada, where the law is less inhumanely
enforced than in DEAland, it is absurdly cruel to dump the responsibility of the medical
marijuana issue on those who have serious medical problems.)
See
Problems
At Two California Clubs Demonstrate The Cruelty of Leaving Sick and Dying To Fend For
Themselves
CRUSADER FOR MEDICAL POT USE FED UP WITH HASSLE, EXPENSE
See
Canadian Court Delays
Trial Of MS Patient Harichy Until Province’s Top Court Has Ruled On Medical Defense
Issue.
and links from there.
Lynn Harichy says she’s sorry she ever started her campaign to
legalize marijuana for medical use.
The 36-year-old Londoner with multiple sclerosis says she’s found the campaign
tiring and expensive.
"I’m just getting tired of the whole issue. I just want it to go away,"
she said.
Harichy is charged with marijuana possession after protesting the law by trying to
light a marijuana cigarette on the steps of the London police station. She expected to be
charged and planned to challenge the marijuana law in court.
While her lawyer, Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young, has
offered to waive his fee, Harichy said it will still cost her $20,000 to bring in expert
witnesses.
It is money she said she doesn’t have.
"I didn’t know it was going to cost this much," she said.
"I really thought that all I needed to do was tell my story and that would be the
end of the legal part. How naive I am. This issue is a full-time job without pay."
A benefit to raise money is being organized for April 25 at 8 p.m. at the Embassy Hotel
in London, she said.
Harichy said smoking marijuana relieves constant pain in the back of her head and down
her spine and the uncontrollable spasms. The drugs that she has been prescribed have had
severe side-effects, she said.
"When I use marijuana the worst side-effect I have found
is the legal system," she said.
While Harichy said she is tired of the fight, she still plans to open a medical
marijuana buyers’ club in London, which will supply marijuana to people who have a
medical certificate from their doctors.
She said the idea has drawn a lot of support from London doctors, who have been signing
the certificates for their patients.
See
In March, Harichy met with federal Health Minister Allan Rock in Tillsonburg to urge
him to press for changes in the law.
Rock said he took seriously Harichy’s plea to legalize marijuana for medical use.
He said he and Justice Minister Anne McLellan have asked senior
civil servants to review the implications of legalizing marijuana for medical purposes and
hoped to have a response for Harichy within months.
See
Canadian
Health Minister Says He Is "Taking Seriously" Plea By MS Patient Harichy To
Legalize Medical Marijuana
(Ed. note: This is no time at all, if you are not in pain or prison.)
Copyright © 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.
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