Here's a copy of my letter. 2 pages
Health Canada
Re: Medical Marijuana Reform Dec 26, 2012
I hope this letter finds everyone who reads it in good health.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for me. I am a 49 year old man. I live with daily pain as a result of many years working very hard jobs for very long hours. My knees were destroyed by a job as a meter reader, walking over 10 miles a day for over 5 years. There are days when I cannot go up or down the stairs as a result of the arthritis in my knees. The pain is severe.
17 years ago I started my own business from nothing. I worked hard taking further toll on my body. Thankfully today I have good staff and do not have to do as much manual labour as before.
I found cannabis to help tremendously with numbing the pain and allowing me to sleep through the pain. The narcotics and pharmaceuticals my Doctor prescribed left me in a zombie like state. I could not take the side effects of the different medications and flushed them all. My family doctor refused to discuss cannabis so I had to find another doctor. What in these proposed changes makes me think my family doctor is going to change his opinion on prescribing cannabis to me?
I am an honorable, trustworthy stand up member of my community and simply do not agree with the proposed changes. I pay a lot of personal and business taxes and have never once been in trouble with the law. I grow my medicine for my own personal consumption. It is MY RIGHT as declared by a judge to have reasonable and easy access to this drug. Why is this right being taken away? It seems to me it is because of Health Canada’s lack of inspecting the licensed grows? It would take 2 minutes to inspect my grow area and count my plants. Why hasn’t someone come over?
I stay within my plant count, don’t sell any of it. Why am I being lumped in with a criminal element? I am very insulted that my government is including me in with this group.
These proposed changes are akin to taking away knives because some people stab other people with them. Just because someone abuses a knife does not justify taking knives away from everyone.
Mr. Harper has designed a law for 6 month mandatory sentences for growing 6 plants and now would like to take away MY RIGHT to grow my own medicine. See the connection? You must be aware of what he is doing? Does he really want to see the jails filled with sick cannabis users? It appears so and this is very saddening to see my government do this to its people. Many sick people will continue to grow and risk losing everything. And how convienent that you have everyone's address.
The costs of buying my medicine will be far out of my reach. With the changes I now will be forced to pay $1680 per month for my medicine? Any moral, normal person can see this is outrageous at the least!
So my options are what?
1- Shut down my little grow, throw out everything I paid for and worked so hard to get and buy my medicine, which very well may not be as effective as my own strains AND pay $1680 a month?
2- Or…grow my medicine illegally. Run the risk of going to jail, losing my house, business, reputation and watching my employee’s lose their jobs/houses etc.
3- Or…Suffer
Apparently Health Canada prefers #3. None of these options work for me. Is there another option I am missing?
Yes the program is being abused but that is a result of how it was setup and being run. It is like leaving the bank doors unlocked and then wondering why people stole the money. It was designed to fail.
The following are changes that should have been in place from the beginning.
The program should have included the following BEFORE a license to grow is granted
1- Fire and electrical code inspection. It is a current requirement when a new woodstove is installed into a home to have the fire inspector inspect it. Why should a grow area be any different? A simple form signed by the inspector stating that the grow area meets or exceeds code. This signed form must be submitted to HC before a license is granted. Exactly how much will this cost HC? Zero. The fire departments are complaining about this ‘problem’ let them inspect them. Simple solution.
2- Local law enforcement should have to be notified when a license is approved. Don’t hide behind confidentiality. Make the patient sign a waiver form that allows the police instant access. If you want to grow your own medicine, you must allow law enforcement access to the grow area at ANY time of day or night. No exceptions. If you do not allow instant access your license is immediately revoked. Simple. This takes away HC’s need for any inspectors at all. Let the police take care of the inspections. What will this cost HC? Zero. The police are complaining about this program being abused; let them do the inspections for HC. They will want to do this. Any legal conforming grower should not care as they have nothing to hide.
3- Take away the Designated Grower Program. You grow your own or buy it from authorized seller. This DG program was set up to be abused plain and simple.
I am sure the above recommendations would have been welcomed by the Police and Fire Associations. Every licensed grow area would be inspected and would be staying within the plant count with the above simple amendments. The safety of the neighborhoods and the people in the dwelling has been addressed. The abuse of the program is eliminated. And all this costs Health Canada nothing.
Instead, Mr. Harper has implemented a plan to throw sick Canadians in jail for growing a natural, effective medicine which has never caused a single death. His hate for this plant and the people who use it is obvious by his actions. The polls show the majority of Canadians do not agree with him, he does not care. As a lifelong Conservative, I assure you my vote will be going elsewhere in the coming election.
Thank you for reading.
