COMPASSION GOES TO POT

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COMPASSION GOES TO POT

 http://www.pulseniagara.com/viewstory.php?storyid=281&page=1

On September 4 the St Catharines Public Library’s Mills Room hosted the inaugural meeting of the Niagara Compassion Society,
(NCS) an organization that seeks to provide medicinal marijuana for those in need in the
Niagara Region.

Approximately 30 people ranging in age from 18 to 80, with afflictions from HIV to cluster
headaches, attended. They came to lend their support by physical presence, or on behalf of
loved ones, or to learn more about what the NCS can offer as a choice for pain
management that the multi-billion dollar medical industry has failed to provide.
When Health Canada sponsored a 5 year medicinal marijuana growth project costing
almost 6 million dollars of Canadian taxpayer’s money, the hope would be that the contractor
would at least achieve the same quality of marijuana that hobby growers often get from a
few lights and a small closet. However, this is not the case in Canada.
According to one BBC International report, “one lab test showed that it contained little active
ingredient, and was contaminated with arsenic and lead.” People who have been growing it for
thousands of years have understood that the roots, stems, and yellow, withered fan leaves aren’t what one wants to be smoking.
 

Matt Mernagh, founder and director of the NCS,
states that the mandate of the society is to provide an “effective, safe and reliable source”
of medicinal marijuana for those in the community who meet a narrow criteria of
illnesses. The hope is to provide a product that won’t make those who are ill, even sicker. The
NCS will provide a product at generally the same prices that Health Canada’s recognized
patients pay, and will help patients find the best strains required for each patients personal use and medicinal benefit.
The NCS has expanded its criteria to include other obvious benefit-uses of treatment,
including Fibromyalgia, Crohn’s, and glaucoma.

 This is indicative of the NCS’s “quality of life” initiative with which the Federal
program has failed to deal. Health Canada’s 25 page application is
prohibitive in a number of ways – from its hard-to-negotiate length to the fact that it
compromises insurance coverage, not to mention the possibility of receiving a
dangerous product provided by Health Canada.The NCS is sensitive to both the law and
patients. Issues of the so-called ‘official’ Health Canada application are bypassed by allowing
potential members to simply have their doctor indicate in writing that the patient does in fact
have the specific illness that marijuana can assist. The patient’s doctor is briefly consulted
for confirmation purposes as well as for deflecting potentially disastrous issues such
as illegal diversion. The individual is then issued a photo I.D. and a membership
number. During the patient’s membership at NCS, the assigned case number is simply
used for the benefit of the patient by establishing which strains and combinations
of either Indica or Sativa. Indica, and Sativa are 2 different major strains of marijuana. Indica
provides more of a “body stone,” whereas Sativa is a little bit like a “pick me up.”

The NCS has three categories of membership, the first category which includes diseases that
are extremely proactive: HIV, MS, Hepatitis C (active), Muscular Dystrophy, Fibromyalgia, etc.
The second category: “for people who suffer from an ailment…and for whom a doctor feels
that marijuana would benefit in treating their illness.” An example of this is impotence in
males.Category 3 is for those who are already cardholding carriers of the Toronto
Compassion Club’s 1500 plus member strong organization, or Health Canada Medical Marijauna Access Regulation permit holders (in other words, the poor saps who are furtherly compromising their health by the Canadian
Government’s incompetence.

Those who think they meet the criteria are encouraged to attend the general meeting held
at the Central Library in St. Catharines on October 1. The meeting will educate listeners
about the application form, as well as aiding anyone who is intrigued but confused by the
laws, and nervous about the stigma attached within their social or age class to the use of
marijuana for health reasons.

NIAGARA COMPASSION
SOCIETY
NEXT MEETING
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1
MILLS ROOM AT THE CENTRAL LIBRARY IN
ST. CATHARINES
7:30 PM

admin @ August 28, 2004