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Marco Renda
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Source: The Strand (University Of Toronto)
Link: http://www.tinyurl.com.au/x.php?1q49
Med marijuana user draws battle lines
By Joe Howell, Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: News
Marco Renda cooks his pot, he vapourizes it, and when he does not have access to electricity, he rolls it. But Renda is not a criminal.
He suffers from many ailments, including hepatitis C, severe arthritis, and IBS, and so Health Canada has given him a medical marijuana exemption for 26 grams a day.
They've also taken away over 7,000 packs of marijuana seeds he planned to sell to people like himself.
Coming back from Europe, Renda declared the seeds at Pearson International Airport, only to have them confiscated by Customs. Health Canada still won't allow their release, but Renda is prepared for a fight.
He has started work on a constitutional challenge, something to which he is no stranger. In 2003, he was one of the plaintiffs in a case that forced the federal government to start growing medical marijuana.
The federal government must now provide the roughly 2,000 exemptees in Canada with marijuana, explains Renda.
Because the federal government only offers one strain, however, which many find ineffective, very few of the exemptees are actually taking the feds up on it.
About 98 to 99 percent opt for securing their own supply rather than purchasing the "hybridization of MS-17/338 female plants and the MS-17/596 male plant" offered by the government.
That's why Renda co-founded the Medical Marijuana Seeds Wholesaler, which offers far more exotic-sounding varieties like "Nirvana Special" and "Romulan Island Sweet Skunk."
It's a curious twist, considering that Renda was one of the seven medical marijuana users that launched the Hitzig v. Canada case that got the federal government growing weed in Flin Flon, Manitoba in the first place.
Renda is optimistic about his latest challenge. "I think the judges are on our side," he said.
His company seems legal - the government has given it a bank identification number and a GST number so he can import seeds from Amsterdam.
But, constitutional challenges aren't cheap.
"We're looking at major legal fees," said Renda. He explains that they don't have the money, "but the patients are running out of patience."
He finds that the right marijuana helps with his nausea, which is clear from his appetite. During a phone interview, he's worried that the sushi being delivered isn't enough.
Unfortunately for Renda, who is also the publisher and editor-in-chief of Treating Yourself, a journal of alternative medicine, he has not yet found a strain of marijuana that helps with his pain.
He believes it may be out there, which is why his magazine is doing "smoke reports" on the over 1,600 varieties available.
"We're trying to educate one another," said Renda. "The only one who knows and can talk about it is the patient."
Another med-pot struggle
Renda's seed battle is not the only fight over med-pot currently taking place in Ontario. Ted Kindos, the owner of a restaurant and bar in Burlington, was embroiled in a human rights complaint for asking a medical exemptee not to smoke marijuana outside his establishment.
The exemptee claims he was discriminated against, but Kindos argued that provincial liquor laws do not permit for the consumption of controlled substances in licensed bars.
Government Services Minister Ted McMeekin recently wrote a letter to federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, seeking clarity in the situation.
"I am writing to ask for your assistance in clarifying Health Canada's policy on the possession and consumption of medical marijuana and the appropriate circumstances where the product can be used," wrote McMeekin.
Greg Dennis, spokesperson for the Ministry of Government Services, said that "it was clear that a business owner like Ted Kindos was caught between a regulatory rock and a hard place."
"When Health Canada came up with [the rules surrounding medical marijuana] they just weren't clear on where people could and couldn't smoke," said Dennis.
"We just need to figure this out, and we will."
-Joe Howell
Link: http://www.tinyurl.com.au/x.php?1q49
Med marijuana user draws battle lines
By Joe Howell, Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: News
Marco Renda cooks his pot, he vapourizes it, and when he does not have access to electricity, he rolls it. But Renda is not a criminal.
He suffers from many ailments, including hepatitis C, severe arthritis, and IBS, and so Health Canada has given him a medical marijuana exemption for 26 grams a day.
They've also taken away over 7,000 packs of marijuana seeds he planned to sell to people like himself.
Coming back from Europe, Renda declared the seeds at Pearson International Airport, only to have them confiscated by Customs. Health Canada still won't allow their release, but Renda is prepared for a fight.
He has started work on a constitutional challenge, something to which he is no stranger. In 2003, he was one of the plaintiffs in a case that forced the federal government to start growing medical marijuana.
The federal government must now provide the roughly 2,000 exemptees in Canada with marijuana, explains Renda.
Because the federal government only offers one strain, however, which many find ineffective, very few of the exemptees are actually taking the feds up on it.
About 98 to 99 percent opt for securing their own supply rather than purchasing the "hybridization of MS-17/338 female plants and the MS-17/596 male plant" offered by the government.
That's why Renda co-founded the Medical Marijuana Seeds Wholesaler, which offers far more exotic-sounding varieties like "Nirvana Special" and "Romulan Island Sweet Skunk."
It's a curious twist, considering that Renda was one of the seven medical marijuana users that launched the Hitzig v. Canada case that got the federal government growing weed in Flin Flon, Manitoba in the first place.
Renda is optimistic about his latest challenge. "I think the judges are on our side," he said.
His company seems legal - the government has given it a bank identification number and a GST number so he can import seeds from Amsterdam.
But, constitutional challenges aren't cheap.
"We're looking at major legal fees," said Renda. He explains that they don't have the money, "but the patients are running out of patience."
He finds that the right marijuana helps with his nausea, which is clear from his appetite. During a phone interview, he's worried that the sushi being delivered isn't enough.
Unfortunately for Renda, who is also the publisher and editor-in-chief of Treating Yourself, a journal of alternative medicine, he has not yet found a strain of marijuana that helps with his pain.
He believes it may be out there, which is why his magazine is doing "smoke reports" on the over 1,600 varieties available.
"We're trying to educate one another," said Renda. "The only one who knows and can talk about it is the patient."
Another med-pot struggle
Renda's seed battle is not the only fight over med-pot currently taking place in Ontario. Ted Kindos, the owner of a restaurant and bar in Burlington, was embroiled in a human rights complaint for asking a medical exemptee not to smoke marijuana outside his establishment.
The exemptee claims he was discriminated against, but Kindos argued that provincial liquor laws do not permit for the consumption of controlled substances in licensed bars.
Government Services Minister Ted McMeekin recently wrote a letter to federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, seeking clarity in the situation.
"I am writing to ask for your assistance in clarifying Health Canada's policy on the possession and consumption of medical marijuana and the appropriate circumstances where the product can be used," wrote McMeekin.
Greg Dennis, spokesperson for the Ministry of Government Services, said that "it was clear that a business owner like Ted Kindos was caught between a regulatory rock and a hard place."
"When Health Canada came up with [the rules surrounding medical marijuana] they just weren't clear on where people could and couldn't smoke," said Dennis.
"We just need to figure this out, and we will."
-Joe Howell
