Editor: I am writing this letter to you in hopes that you can help me. I am a mother of four children, and an employee in the City of Langley. I am also a student and a law-abiding and contributing member of our community.
A year ago my doctor recommended the use of medicinal marijuana for treating some of my health issues. I was having terrible side effects from the medications I had been using and was open to trying anything to reduce my symptoms.
I had lost 70 pounds within six months and was having tremors and terrible stomach problems from the medications I was on. I contacted the Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary, after reading an article in the newspaper about them.
I appreciated how I could potentially gain access to safe affordable medicine. I met with them and began the process to become a member.
Like the pharmaceuticals I was prescribed, it was a process figuring out which types of cannabis worked best for me. The people at the LMMD were very helpful and knowledgeable and I felt relief from many of my symptoms almost immediately.
What I liked most about the LMMD was that I was able to buy edibles and didn’t have to smoke my medicine. I began the long, arduous process to obtain a federal exemption, although I had my doctor’s support.
I would need to see a specialist before my application could be submitted. This included an eight-month wait to see a specialist to confirm the need for medical cannabis. Finally I had all the documentation needed, and my doctors supported me in my application to grow and use medicinal cannabis.
It will be probably another six to eight weeks before my permit and licence arrive, and then it will take time to grow my own medicine.
Since the LMMD was raided, I have experienced a lot of anxiety and frustration with this system. I ask you to please tell me where I am able to get safe affordable medicine while I wait.
When the LMMD was raided, it made me feel like I was a criminal. The rulings by the highest courts have found the medicinal marijuana program to be full of problems, and while it has taken me more than 15 months to be able to send in my supported application, I still wait.
Where in the meantime am I supposed to be obtaining my medication? I am left to either go to other community dispensaries to get my medicine, or buy from the street.
Even if I ordered from Health Canada, it would take several months. I refuse to contribute to the possible profits of gangs, so buying off the streets isn’t an option for me.
I have basically been forced to pay toll bridge fees to cross over to Maple Ridge to the dispensary in that community. There is the cost of the gas and the tolls, and it is not very convenient for me.
Why am I, a law-abiding Canadian citizen with ill health, being criminalized for obtaining medication that is helping me and is prescribed to me?
Please support the reopening of the LMMD in our community. It is the only humane and compassionate thing to do.
Allowing flawed government programs to criminalize those most marginalized in our society by discouraging, disallowing, or raiding us of our medication is unacceptable. Cannabis was an accepted form of medicine for 3,000 years; I would say that should count for more than the 70 or so years it wasn’t allowed to be called medicine.
I have many family members in law enforcement. Some have told me they would prefer I go to a dispensary than grow for myself due to the risk of home invasion.
I really cannot wait for 2014 when Health Canada plans to make the much-needed changes to their program. I ask readers to help reduce my pain, and that of many others.
Donna Deneumoustier,
Langley