“Business” of weed... Doesn’t translate well for patients presented by: one-pissed-off-patient in Nova Scotia

At the risk of sounding like a crazed ‘pothead’, I think the "business" of weed doesn't translate well for patients.

I am an MS patient who will continue suffering lasting symptoms, likely for the rest of my life - I'm 43. Marijuana did assist greatly and I'm sure if I were in the financial position to smoke the amount prescribed, I'd be feeling ducky with a new lease on life.

I'm a positive person and I'm grateful most days for my wonderful life because I'm very aware that things can get much, much worse. So, I'm writing this for me and for every patient who can't.

I should probably mention that until 2009, I never smoked weed and had no idea what a designate grower was.

Reality of Licensing I'm assuming every Canadian knows what it takes to get an appointment with a Specialist – more to the point, what it takes to get the Specialist to prescribe marijuana and complete MORE paperwork.

On September 29, 2010, I wrote to the editor of our local newspaper expressing my frustration with countless delays and errors made by Health Canada in renewing my license.

The article was published and, to my surprise, I was contacted the same day by a designated grower.

While speaking to the grower, I found out that he was located about 40 minutes from where I live and that he would grow and deliver the supply right to my front door.

I asked how much he charged per gram. He told me $0 and explained that he doesn’t charge his patients because the excess harvest is sold to the local compassionate club.

I believed this was going to change my quality of life - absolutely grateful that this stranger stepped up and said ‘I’ll take care of it, you take care of getting better’. Yep, I cried.

We discussed my having to re-submit the licensing paperwork because my current paperwork was not for a designated grower.

Back to the Specialist I go with my package of documents and pictures.

The grower also suggested that I increase my dosage from 3g per day to 7 or 8g so I could cook with it. The Specialist smiled and said "who's the doctor?" so we stuck with 3g and re-signed all the paperwork on October 26, 2010.

Today is April 2, 2011. More than 5 months later, I still have not received the grower's criminal check so my paperwork is now stale dated.

Guess who I have to call? The Specialist so I can have her do all this paperwork again.

Supply Because I am licensed, the grower has been supplying me a few grams every couple of weeks to tie me over until the operation was up and running.

The grower advised me early last month that the operation is now up and running. Hoooooooray!!!! access to promised supply means I can actually start managing pain and returning to some sort of normalcy...what a relief!

Without success, I have been trying desperately to contact the grower before I ran out of supply - I ended up running out more than 10 days ago.

I'm perplexed as to why this particular grower would have me go through all this since October 2010 just to walk away without as much as a courtesy call?

I'm frustrated and more than a little enraged that there is absolutely no protection for patients. What am I going to do? Call the police? What’s our recourse?

Designated Growers As a designated grower, you play an integral role in providing pain relief and hope for a semblance of normalcy. Licensed patients are human beings - who are suffering from all sorts of debilitating diseases.

I hear a clear message to Government for prohibition.

What's the message to growers?

What can patients depend on?

Make no mistake, we are depending on growers. Unfortunately, patients have no way of identifying trustworthy growers from seedy growers.

Leaving patient's in a lurch for long periods of time without access to supply is brutally cruel. Think detox: supplied for short periods of time, no access to supply for long periods - we can't gain control and manage the pain under these circumstances.

This public forum was chosen because there’s nowhere else to turn. I’m certain there are many of the same suffering messages that aren’t making it through. It’s my hope that this one will.

Please understand that sick people are counting on growers…if, for whatever reason, you can’t or won’t continue working with a patient, please give the courtesy of a discussion before pulling the plug on a patient’s supply. Only cowards without a conscience turn off the phone.

Thanks for reading, I greatly appreciate your time. Cheers, Dominika Somerton Nova Scotia, Canada