VIANARCHRIS
Well-Known Member
Not sure how this is news, but....
Medicinal pot patient discusses the ins and outs of how he gets and uses his medicine
Last week a federal judge struck down legislation that banned prescribed-patients from growing their own medical marijuana and has given the Liberal government six months to come up with new rules.
Local medical marijuana user Robert Lefave is hopeful any new laws will mean he can grow his own pot again.
Around 10 years ago Lefave started using marijuana to self-medicate for a number of medical issues including arthritis in his knees, bilateral nerve damage in his left arm, degenerative disc disease, anxiety disorder, and PTSD.
About a year and a half ago he was able to get a prescription with the help of a high-profile non-profit organization in the Sault that is familiar with him.
“They took pity on me and found me a sympathetic local doctor because they had seen the change in me over the ten years from using marijuana, “ he said.
Lefave now has a five gram-a-day prescription, officially for treatment of his Anxiety and PTSD but he said its still not easy, or cheap, to get his medicine.
Under the current rules that govern Lefave’s medical marijuana access, medical pot users are only allowed to shop through government-approved marijuana distributors.
With these producers, he said, comes annoying bureaucracy, high prices, and unstable strain-availability.
Because of laws about how marijuana-providers can market their product, users have to choose a provider blind, without knowing any product details or prices.
Providers send out special identification cards to show authorities they are allowed to posses marijuana legally but, Lefave said, there seems to be no standard on how these are produced between companies and they range from plastic cards to handwritten paper ones.
“How is a police officer supposed to know I didn’t just make it myself?” he said.
There is 150-gram limit per order, in Lefave’s case that’s also his monthly-allowed amount, and all shipments come via courier or Canada Post.
Prices range from $5 - $12 per gram depending on quality but that doesn’t include taxes or shipping and so the costs are usually a lot higher than black market prices.
“It’s expensive. To fill my prescription would cost $1,500 a month. I get by with only being able to afford less than a third of that,” he said.
But the biggest problem Lefave has is that legal providers have no stability in what they offer and so once patients find a strain that works well for their symptoms, it might not be available the next week and so then they have to shop around again until they find something else that works.
He said if he was allowed to grow his own marijuana all of these problems would go away and he could produce a custom strain that works well for him at much more affordable price.
Lefave estimates he could grow his own marijuana for $2 or $3 a gram, the biggest cost being the electricity and the equipment, which he already has.
Lefave used to live with a licensed marijuana grower years ago and he operated a small, roughly eight plant, growing operation for the licensed grower.
Once that person moved out he had to stop and he’s using the space as a temporary storage room, though the equipment is still there, ready to go.
Lefave doesn’t just smoke and vaporize his marijuana, though smoking is his preferred method of consumption, he also eats it in toffees, brownies, and green marijuana-butter which he can put into anything he wants.
“I put a scoop of marijuana butter in my eggs in the morning, best green eggs in town. Didn’t you know Dr. Seuss was a stoner?”
A scoop of marijuana butter is approximately equivalent to smoking one joint he said.
Lefave said that eating marijuana works better for his chronic pain while smoking is better for his PTSD and anxiety.
Although he is allowed to carry up to 150 grams, he usually just walks around with a bunch of joints or some brownies to help him get through the day and the smell of marijuana often follows him wherever he goes.
“A lot of people will comment and say things like ’geez, it smells like skunk or weed in here’, meanwhile I’ve got a bag of it in my pocket and I just finished smoking a big phatty.”
Even the packages he gets in the mail, despite being double sealed in two plastic bags as well as pill canisters, emit a smell.
Lefave said there is still some stigma associated with marijuana, which he attributes as being passed down from the ‘Reefer Madness’ days of the 1950s.
The group that advocated for him to get his prescription, and the doctor who wrote it, both asked him to keep them anonymous because of the feared public-perception.
The worst is when he meets “ignorant people” who call him “druggy” or give him a cold shoulder because of his medication, however, most reactions are supportive and the benefits to his health outweigh any negativity he’s received.
Lefave remembers what life was like before he had marijuana and is just happy to be able to get his medication and have “good” days.
“Being good means no serious anxiety issues and no agonizing pain. I wouldn’t be able to go to work if I didn’t have pot; I wouldn’t be able to interact with people,” he said.
Medicinal pot patient discusses the ins and outs of how he gets and uses his medicine
Last week a federal judge struck down legislation that banned prescribed-patients from growing their own medical marijuana and has given the Liberal government six months to come up with new rules.
Local medical marijuana user Robert Lefave is hopeful any new laws will mean he can grow his own pot again.
Around 10 years ago Lefave started using marijuana to self-medicate for a number of medical issues including arthritis in his knees, bilateral nerve damage in his left arm, degenerative disc disease, anxiety disorder, and PTSD.
About a year and a half ago he was able to get a prescription with the help of a high-profile non-profit organization in the Sault that is familiar with him.
“They took pity on me and found me a sympathetic local doctor because they had seen the change in me over the ten years from using marijuana, “ he said.
Lefave now has a five gram-a-day prescription, officially for treatment of his Anxiety and PTSD but he said its still not easy, or cheap, to get his medicine.
Under the current rules that govern Lefave’s medical marijuana access, medical pot users are only allowed to shop through government-approved marijuana distributors.
With these producers, he said, comes annoying bureaucracy, high prices, and unstable strain-availability.
Because of laws about how marijuana-providers can market their product, users have to choose a provider blind, without knowing any product details or prices.
Providers send out special identification cards to show authorities they are allowed to posses marijuana legally but, Lefave said, there seems to be no standard on how these are produced between companies and they range from plastic cards to handwritten paper ones.
“How is a police officer supposed to know I didn’t just make it myself?” he said.
There is 150-gram limit per order, in Lefave’s case that’s also his monthly-allowed amount, and all shipments come via courier or Canada Post.
Prices range from $5 - $12 per gram depending on quality but that doesn’t include taxes or shipping and so the costs are usually a lot higher than black market prices.
“It’s expensive. To fill my prescription would cost $1,500 a month. I get by with only being able to afford less than a third of that,” he said.
But the biggest problem Lefave has is that legal providers have no stability in what they offer and so once patients find a strain that works well for their symptoms, it might not be available the next week and so then they have to shop around again until they find something else that works.
He said if he was allowed to grow his own marijuana all of these problems would go away and he could produce a custom strain that works well for him at much more affordable price.
Lefave estimates he could grow his own marijuana for $2 or $3 a gram, the biggest cost being the electricity and the equipment, which he already has.
Lefave used to live with a licensed marijuana grower years ago and he operated a small, roughly eight plant, growing operation for the licensed grower.
Once that person moved out he had to stop and he’s using the space as a temporary storage room, though the equipment is still there, ready to go.
Lefave doesn’t just smoke and vaporize his marijuana, though smoking is his preferred method of consumption, he also eats it in toffees, brownies, and green marijuana-butter which he can put into anything he wants.
“I put a scoop of marijuana butter in my eggs in the morning, best green eggs in town. Didn’t you know Dr. Seuss was a stoner?”
A scoop of marijuana butter is approximately equivalent to smoking one joint he said.
Lefave said that eating marijuana works better for his chronic pain while smoking is better for his PTSD and anxiety.
Although he is allowed to carry up to 150 grams, he usually just walks around with a bunch of joints or some brownies to help him get through the day and the smell of marijuana often follows him wherever he goes.
“A lot of people will comment and say things like ’geez, it smells like skunk or weed in here’, meanwhile I’ve got a bag of it in my pocket and I just finished smoking a big phatty.”
Even the packages he gets in the mail, despite being double sealed in two plastic bags as well as pill canisters, emit a smell.
Lefave said there is still some stigma associated with marijuana, which he attributes as being passed down from the ‘Reefer Madness’ days of the 1950s.
The group that advocated for him to get his prescription, and the doctor who wrote it, both asked him to keep them anonymous because of the feared public-perception.
The worst is when he meets “ignorant people” who call him “druggy” or give him a cold shoulder because of his medication, however, most reactions are supportive and the benefits to his health outweigh any negativity he’s received.
Lefave remembers what life was like before he had marijuana and is just happy to be able to get his medication and have “good” days.
“Being good means no serious anxiety issues and no agonizing pain. I wouldn’t be able to go to work if I didn’t have pot; I wouldn’t be able to interact with people,” he said.
