MED MARIJUANA: Opening minds and discussions

A series of medical marijuana stories as provided to the Sentinel by a Medical Marijuana license holder. Medhead is writing anonymously because of the potential stigma their condition and medication would have on their life in a small community. This is an introduction to Medhead and where this series is going to go over the next few months.

In these articles I will focus on my experience as a Health Canada Marihuana Medical Access Division license holder authorized to possess and produce marijuana for medical purposes.

Details that may reveal my identity are softened, and are not as important as how I felt during the process to get a license and use it.

I live a life of dual identities because of the current illegal status of pot, and the medicinal use of an herb that has existed with humanity since (and probably before) recorded history. Contrary to 5,000 years of documented use as a medicine for a variety of ailments, the current legal status of pot is a result of laws created by our grandparents.

Have we learned anything since our grandparents’ actions? I will let others tell the history of pot, the legal system and our grandparents; I will tell the story of medical marijuana from a personal point of view regarding the relief of pain and increased quality of living here and now.

It is because of the dual identity problem that I chose to work with the Sentinel. I will provide my stories and I have faith in maintaining the first person narrative prose this will indeed help the “opening of minds and discussions” in not only Grand Forks and southern B.C., but in the realm of the Internet and its non-local sharing of information. The recent decision quoted in the media by the Grand Forks council on not participating in the “Stop the Violence” discussion opportunities confused me because I thought I live in a progressive town.

I do not feel entirely at ease with full disclosure on my medical conditions, which are between my doctor and me. I can, however, describe the application process, the annual renewal process and my feelings of exasperation, as applying every year is insulting.

There may be some people that are scamming the system, and their minority actions make the majority look bad in the mainstream media.  I invite responses from other medical pot license holders, and people that have never done pot who want to know if it will help them. I have friends that can respond to the medical condition questions and I hope they will become part of the discussion strings on the Boundary Sentinel website.

There are qualified people in all our communities working to describe the medical effects of the marijuana medicine. Perhaps they will work together to write a series of articles too. That discussion may be technical and longer than a 10 second sound bite. Perhaps that is why mainstream media is missing those important messages. Maybe the information and web pages are out there now and you can share some links with us?

I do respect that Health Canada did create a medical marijuana system, and I am a participant. As a participant I have agreed to not break any laws. My stories will not include stories of illegal activities. However, I urge you to read the laws and understand that there are undefined or grey areas that are of concern to Health Canada and the participants. One of the stories will be about how Health Canada requested participation in the changes they are about to make in the medical marijuana laws, and it will include some of my responses to the consultation process from my experiences.

The next article will start my story of applying for a medical marijuana license. I will walk you though my decision-making process and the new questions that came up as things progressed. I do not know how many articles it will take me to get to “today.”

Today there is a war on drugs around the world, and in Canada there is hope because Health Canada still wants a medical marijuana program, and Health Canada is asking for discussions to take place in our communities so we can help design something better to then take responsibility for healing our communities.