From: "EndProhibition National Director" < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >
Subject: EndProhibition Now  -  Personal Account from Member

The following is a personal account from one of our End Prohibition members in
Ontario. He is one of thousands of Canadians who suffer from a malady that can be
alleviated by the use of cannabis (marijuana). Although 4000 people in Canada are
exempted from criminal sanctions for their choice in medication, many tens of
thousands more have been unable to access this respite from the drug war.

In this account Robert relates his experiences with his illness, his medicinal use of
cannabis, and the bureaucratic labyrinth of the Canadian Medical Marijuana Access
Regulations (MMAR). He is one of many thousands of Canadians who use cannabis
safely and should not fear criminal penalty for this personal health decision.

There have been hundreds of deaths from prescription pain-relief pills, and none
from cannabis (also shown to be effective in pain relief) which is far more difficult to
obtain. We must end this system that endangers Canadians by misrepresenting the
risk and benefit of pharmaceutical and natural substances available. Drug policy must
be set by rational, evidence-based research by experts, and not by an ideological
agenda. We thank everyone, who like Robert, participate in their communities and in
the Canadian political process. Together we can end prohibition!


"My Cannabis Awakening"
By Robert Ling

About two years ago, I suffered a grand mal seizure that would change my life
forever. At the time I was on a drug called Clozapine, an anti-psychotic prescribed to
improve my sleep habits. My neurologist performed a variety of tests and came to the
conclusion that my seizure was induced by this anti-psychotic. I was banned from
taking any other anti-psychotics: my seizure threshold was so low that I was not to be
put on any substance that could lower it any further. I suffer from bipolar disorder
and at first, this information was crushing. I lost my sleep aid, and went through a
terrible withdrawal.

This was not the first standard treatment that would end up giving me complications.
Risperdal made me a numb zombie, and Zyprexa and Seroquel both landed me in
the hospital for stomach complications. Other pharmaceutical sleep aids were either
ineffective or caused too many negative side-effects. Without a sleep aid, I would go
days without sleep. When you don't sleep for 4 days in a row, you cannot function.
Fortunately I was introduced to a natural substance that allows me to function
productively. That substance is cannabis.

I now am a lifetime advocate for the drug and will continue to be as it has been of
great benefit to my health. I can now sleep, keep a social life, and get decent grades
at school. Before cannabis, I could not finish a university year, but now I am able. In
addition to helping me cope with bipolar disorder, I use cannabis to relieve my
suffering from chronic abdominal pain syndrome. Chronic abdominal pain syndrome
is another way for your doctor to tell you, “we know you come here and experience
blockages, we know that your intestines are reddening and we know that you are in
severe pain but we have no clue what is causing it.” I take antibiotics for this issue
and it leaves me severely nauseated, and cannabis helps me with this. This discovery
was bittersweet, as my use of medical cannabis would also introduce me to societies'
view on the substance, and into the hypocrisy surrounding it.

Before I used cannabis medicinally, I accepted the stigma of the “unproductive
stoner”. Who would want to use a substance that kills brain cells? Anti-drug and anti-
cannabis propaganda can be effective and as a result of my medicinal use, I became
a target of discrimination. For a substance that is impossible to overdose upon, you
need to file a 40 page license form every year to legally possess your medicine, and
need to renew this license every year. Most patients cannot see their doctor on
demand, and on top of this you have an 8 to 10 weeks wait for processing. As a
result, you get people who suffer from terminal diseases such as cancer who die
before receiving their license.

So, as a disabled person who benefits from cannabis, you usually have a choice of
suffering or becoming a criminal. Now with Stephen Harper playing out his obsession
with mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders by introducing bills like
C-15, patients will no longer have judicial discretion, and will be thrown in jail. What
opened my eyes the most was Harper's 100 million dollar investment into the prison
system at a time of economic recession. Statistics Canada was saying in 2008 that the
crime rate has been lowered all over the country, and yet most Canadians still believe
the crime rate is increasing.

Chronic pain sufferers like myself live a life of suffering. Why put us through more
pain over a substance we find medicinally beneficial? The prohibition of cannabis (or
any substance Canadians find beneficial) is a crime against the sick in our country.
We are denying Canadians the right to happiness and this is not fair.

END PROHIBITION
142 – 757 W HASTINGS ST SUITE #128
VANCOUVER BC V6C 1A1
(604) 831-6684 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


EndProhibition.ca sent you this message via the WhyProhibition.ca Framework, a free
resource for drug policy sites.

WhyProhibition.ca is a project of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation:
142 - 757 W. Hastings, Suite 211
Vancouver, BC V6C 1A1
Canada


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