Re: Marijuana in a pill, March 30.

Letter-writer Heather J. Martelock is mistaken. The "pills" that allegedly contain marijuana contain only a synthetic mimic of marijuana, but no actual cannabis.

The only medicine in the world that contains actual cannabis is Sativex from GW Pharmaceuticals/Bayer. This sublingual spray has been a disappointment for being made from only a single strain of cannabis. It is only prescribed in Canada for multiple sclerosis (MS). Its value is very limited.

I have tried the pills, Marinol and Cesamet, and they don't work. Side-effects outweigh the benefits. Every medical marijuana user I have talked to agrees. Lamentably, the only thing that seems to work is the vaporized or smoked whole cannabis, and that only takes the edge off. Even putting marijuana into tinctures or baked goods is strictly forbidden under the medical marijuana access regulations, and this method of dosing is also inconsistent. We are not allowed to possess tinctures, butter, hash, or oils -- only dried bud.

Smoking or vaporizing is the best way to quickly titrate a dose. It acts on the symptoms far better and far faster than a pill or baked good, which can take up to an hour or more to become effective. There is also the "too little too late -- too much too soon" problem with oral dosing of marijuana.

This method would also do little to help my epileptic wife, who needs to medicate as quickly as possible if one of her life-threatening seizures or asthma attacks approaches. Smoked pot can stop an asthma attack in seconds, not minutes.

As for second-hand smoke, the science indicates that marijuana smoke is less harmful than tobacco smoke. The fact that no one has ever died from using cannabis is one indication of its safety. Recent science out of Germany shows how cannabinoids stimulate the body's production of TIMP-1, which helps healthy cells resist cancer invasion.

It seems absurd and discriminatory to ask me to medicate at home or go hide in the alley, while allowing people to crowd the sidewalks and entrances of buildings smoking cigarettes as traffic pollutes the environment, too. The rights of other people need to be addressed. The government has failed to do that.

As a federally licensed medical marijuana user, I have a right to use cannabis. Imposing unfair restrictions on where I can use it violates my rights.

Russell Barth, Ottawa

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis

Tuesday morning during our regular news meeting, one of our intrepid reporters pitched a story about a court decision dealing with medicinal marijuana.

A variety of local "experts" would surely have something to say about the Supreme Court decision ruling that restrictions on the sale and production of medicinal marijuana in Canada are unconstitutional.

"You should ask Michael Phelps what he thinks," came the inevitable comment.

Phelps, the U.S. Olympic swimming hero, is being pilloried worldwide by pious media types after a photo surfaced of him deftly handling a bong at a student party at the University of South Carolina.

Of course, newspapers, websites and TV stations breathlessly reported the news as if Phelps was some sort of wild deviant caught murdering puppies for fun. His multimillion-dollar endorsement deals were sure to crumble. His mother would be ashamed. What type of role model would he be to the dozens of Americans who care about swimming in non-Olympic years? The horror of it all.

Then a funny thing happened.

Phelps apologized, said he wouldn't get caught in such a compromising situation again, and that was that.

The International Olympic Committee said it wasn't a big deal. His major sponsors said it wasn't a big deal. They weren't thrilled, but his mea culpa was deemed sufficient.

Oh sure, the detractors keep trying to tear Phelps down, each day trying to get someone to intimate that he is Beelzebub and Hitler rolled into one, but it just won't take.

Why? Because many people just see a 23-year-old kid, who has trained harder than most of us can imagine to become the best in the world at what he does, blowing off a little smoke.

And try as they might, the lunatic fringe can't convince people that what Phelps did will mean the end of proper society as we know it.

Another colleague sent me this Wednesday morning, from Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at the Stern Business School at New York University and opinions editor at www.forbes.com:

"In the hierarchy of life forms on this, our earth, the British tabloid journalist lies somewhere between the hagfish and the dung beetle: However, a story Sunday in the News of the World (proprietor: Keith Rupert Murdoch) has made me scratch my chin and wonder whether we are, in fact, being a tad unkind to the dung beetle.

"The paper's great coup was to lay its grubby, Little-England hands on a photograph of Phelps with his mouth pressed firmly into a glass pipe, or 'bong.' The story's pseudo-declamatory opening line (a tabloid art form, in itself) was: 'This is the astonishing picture which could destroy the career of the greatest competitor in Olympic history.' Given that Michael Phelps' career would have remained blissfully undestroyed had the paper chosen not to publish the photograph, one has to marvel at the amoral audacity of the News of the World: in purporting to 'report' on the potential harm to Phelps' image and career from having smoked cannabis, the newspaper was, in fact, 'perpetrating' that very harm."

Nicely put.

Athletes should not be put on pedestals (parents should be the real role models for youngsters). Athletes are human beings, prone to mistakes and lapses in judgment like the rest of us. Phelps wasn't burning a fattie in the middle of a children's festival. And if you try to use his plight as a lesson for your kids ("you see Jimmy, if you smoke up, you'll get reefer madness and feel shame like Michael Phelps") you might get back a question like "how come he can do that and still be the best in the world?" or "how come the leader of the Free World admits he has done it?"

I'm not advocating the use of marijuana. It's not my thing and never has been. But if people need it to battle medical conditions, I'm OK with it. And if a 23-year-old at a frat party has his hands on a bong, I'm not going to express outrage.

Philip Wolf's column runs regularly in this spot. To comment on his opinion, write to: letters@nanaimodailynews.com

The quasi-legal status of Victoria’s compassion clubs may have come a step closer to resolution this week after a B.C. Supreme Court ruling declared parts of Canada’s current medicinal marijuana laws unconstitutional.

The law, which forbids any supplier from distributing medical marijuana to more than one patient, has forced the non-profit clubs into operating illegally, despite the consent of Victoria’s police.

The judge has given Health Canada one year to review the laws and make it easier for purveyors of medicinal marijuana, both inside and outside the law, to keep patients supplied.

The verdict comes as a huge victory, especially for Mat Beren of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society (VICS). Beren was caught tending the VICS’ grow-op in Sooke when police raided the facility in 2004 and confiscated 900 plants.

Although Beren was found guilty of growing and trafficking an illegal substance, the prosecution’s demands for a stiff sentence were thrown out.

Instead, the judge completely discharged the conviction, meaning that there will be no penalty or criminal record because Beren had been growing the cannabis for the club.

This ruling brings into light the legal limbo in which many organizations such as VICS operate. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that marijuana, which is effective for easing the suffering of those with chronic conditions, is a constitutional medicine and the government has a responsibility to provide it to those with a doctor’s prescription.

Mat Beren’s defence made the case that the marijuana provided by the federal government, grown in a Manitoba mineshaft, was of poor quality and obtaining it meant jumping over “unnecessary bureaucratic delays or obstacles.”

Philippe Lucas, the director of VICS, also pointed out that the federal application process can take weeks or months, time which can be ill-afforded by those who are in enough pain to warrant a medicinal marijuana prescription.

It was because of these regulatory hurdles and the inadequacy of the federal marijuana that the compassion clubs were able to spring into existence — VICS serves more than 850 doctor-referred patients on Vancouver Island. Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg ruled in Beren’s case that while compassion clubs “enhanced other people’s lives at minimal or no risk to society,” they “did so outside any legal framework.”

The onus to reform the legal framework lies not with the compassion clubs, which operate “openly, and with reasonable safeguards,” but with Health Canada and the Canadian College of Physicians who failed to make medicinal marijuana sufficiently available for chronic sufferers, according to Koenigsberg.

Other compassion associations, like the Cannabis Buyers Club (CBC), a corollary of UVic’s own Hempology 101 Society, have greeted the likely review of the laws surrounding clubs with enthusiasm.

The club has undergone six police raids on the CBC headquarters in Ted’s Books in downtown Victoria, and the operators have spent several nights in jail, with the charges overturned by courts each time.

CBC spokesperson Kristen Mann said she’ll welcome what a review could mean for the club, but notes that the system still needs many changes.

“Although we have been accepted by the Victoria Police and the B.C. courts, on a federal level we are still considered to be distributors of marijuana, which is illegal,” Mann said.