From The Ottawa Citizen
letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/

BEING PATIENT IN JAIL

While they're here, we'd like to introduce the assembled drug warriors to Grant Krieger. But we can't, because Mr. Krieger, who suffers from severe multiple sclerosis, is in a Calgary jail cell.
See
The Jailing of MS Patient Krieger Pending Trial Is A Test Of Canada’s Conscience.
– Between Rock and A Hard Place

His crime? He grew 31 marijuana plants. Mr. Krieger says smoking marijuana eases the agonizing pain of MS. With marijuana, he can stand up, and even walk. Without it, he is stuck in a wheelchair. His wife credits pot with saving her husband's life.

For staunch drug warriors, this alone makes Mr. Krieger a criminal. But he went even further: He sold some of his marijuana, without profit, to other very sick and dying people. That makes him, in the eyes of the law, a pusher.

His trial won't be for months, and because he won't promise to stop his dangerous criminal activity, he has been denied bail and so remains in jail. Deprived of marijuana, he is in worsening pain and his slight frame has already shed several precious pounds. If the persecution of Grant Krieger doesn't seem like much of a triumph for public safety, blame the drug warriors meeting in Ottawa. And blame their host, Canada's own federal government.

For six years, the Chretien government doggedly ignored medical marijuana. In fact, during that period, the number of prosecutions for marijuana possession rapidly increased, so that, by 1997, they accounted for half of all drug charges.

Then in June, under pressure from the opposition and two embarrassing court cases, the government announced it would study medical marijuana and it would, finally, use an existing power to exempt certain patients from the ban on pot.

As of today, just two exemptions have been granted. Both were for AIDS patients who applied over a year before the announcement -- and who were involved in high-profile court battles. Another 75 formal applications have been made to Health Canada. Not one has yet been decided.

The government says that's because applicants and their doctors haven't provided as much information as needed. But time is of the essence for many of these applicants. And really, when someone with full-blown AIDS insists marijuana helps his appetite, do we need to know more? After all, what's the worst that might happen if an AIDS patient uses marijuana that's not strictly necessary? He gets a cough, maybe. Or is the worry that he will experience some medically useless pleasure from a drug and thereby endanger civilization as we know it? Clearly, a government that is serious about medical marijuana would exempt whole classes of patients, starting with those afflicted with AIDS.
See
Canada May Begin Testing Medical Marijuana On AIDS Patients By The End Of The Year,
But They Are NOT Waiting On The Government.

But then, we suspect this government isn't serious about medical marijuana, or about any other kind of drug reform. And it's not because of public opinion -- the vast majority of Canadians support medical marijuana. In fact, the reason for our government's intransigence may not be found in Canada at all.
See
78 Percent Of Canadians Favor Medical Marijuana – What Is Rock Waiting On? DEAland?

The war on drugs is a uniquely American frenzy. No developed country has so passionately embraced the cops-and-jails model of dealing with drugs as the United States, a country where one million non-violent convicts, mainly drug offenders, are behind bars.

American politicians seem to view even medical marijuana as a Commie plot to be resisted at all costs. An exemption program similar to our government's, started in the liberal thaw of 1976, was effectively killed by drug warriors in the 1980s who made the application process so burdensome no doctor would get involved.

More recently, the White House's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, who mocks medical marijuana as "Cheech and Chong medicine," commissioned a comprehensive study of the subject -- then ignored its conclusions that smoked marijuana did have legitimate therapeutic value.
See
Drug Czar’s Office Endorses Arresting, Jailing Medical Marijuana Smokers;
Canada’s Parliament Resumes Historic Medical Marijuana Debate -- NORML Press Release

Is this the cause of the government's unconscionable delays in dealing with medical marijuana? Is this the reason why AIDS patients, MS sufferers, and others who seek out a relatively benign drug they believe can help them are still being treated like criminal scum?

We suspect that Grant Krieger, and many others like him, would very much like to know the answers to these questions. But Mr. Krieger, trapped in his wheelchair and in a jail cell, won't be coming to Ottawa to get those answers anytime soon.