DrugSense FOCUS Alert #346 - Friday, 20 April 2007
Last Monday newspapers across Canada broke a startling and dismaying analysis of how Health Canada is severely exploiting almost 2000 citizens who are legally permitted to possess and use medical marijuana.
Records obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal that the federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the cannabis in bulk from its official supplier, Prairie Plant Systems.
Leading advocates and organizations who represent both the current and future communities of patients are enlisting the support of all Canadians to seek redress for this gross abuse of those who rely on the help of the government to supply their needed medicine.
In equal order of importance, patients are calling for:
1) The federal government to end the harmful monopoly that's allowing for the economic exploitation of both the critically and chronically ill.
2) Immediate debt forgiveness of the $143,000 purportedly owed to Health Canada by authorized users.
3) Begin immediate negotiations with the provinces on adding medical cannabis to provincial formularies so that the provinces pay for cannabis as they currently do with most other necessary medicines.
4) Initiate and carry out an immediate federal audit of the entire program, as demanded by the Canadian AIDS Society, MP Libby Davies, and Senator Pierre-Claude Nolin.
Please consider sending a Letter to the Editor to Canadian newspapers. If you are a Canadian citizen, please give special attention to the newspapers closest to your hometown.
Letters of 200 words or less have the best chance of print. Personal testimonials from qualified patients, friends and family members also will likely receive greater attention from most newspaper editors.
Please consider using at least one of the points above, but, perhaps, not all of them.
Thanks for your effort and support.
It's not what others do it's what YOU do
**********************************************************************
Newspaper Contacts for Your Letters to the Editor
The majority of the newspaper clippings about this exploitation of patients may be found at
http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Prairie+Plant+Systems
Some articles and editorials may be found at
http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm
To find the letter to the editor contacts by province please go to http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm - using the 'List by Area' dropdown, select a province and then click the 'List by Area' button. Click 'Contact' for the contact information of a selected newspaper.
**********************************************************************
Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.
[email protected]
**********************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US COPIES OF YOUR LETTERS
Please post copies of your letter writing efforts - or report your other actions - to the sent letter list ( [email protected] ) if you are signed up for that list, or by emailing copies directly to [email protected] if you are not. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts.
Joining the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts.
To join the Sent LTE email list see
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form
**********************************************************************
Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource
===
DrugSense provides many services at no charge, but they are not free to produce. Your contributions make DrugSense and its Media Awareness Project (MAP) happen. Please donate today. Our secure Web server at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm accepts credit cards.
Or, mail your check or money order to:
DrugSense
14252 Culver Drive #328
Irvine, CA 92604-0326.
(800) 266 5759
DrugSense is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the expensive, ineffective, and destructive "War on Drugs." Donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
Last Monday newspapers across Canada broke a startling and dismaying analysis of how Health Canada is severely exploiting almost 2000 citizens who are legally permitted to possess and use medical marijuana.
Records obtained under the Access to Information Act reveal that the federal government charges patients 15 times more for certified medical marijuana than it pays to buy the cannabis in bulk from its official supplier, Prairie Plant Systems.
Leading advocates and organizations who represent both the current and future communities of patients are enlisting the support of all Canadians to seek redress for this gross abuse of those who rely on the help of the government to supply their needed medicine.
In equal order of importance, patients are calling for:
1) The federal government to end the harmful monopoly that's allowing for the economic exploitation of both the critically and chronically ill.
2) Immediate debt forgiveness of the $143,000 purportedly owed to Health Canada by authorized users.
3) Begin immediate negotiations with the provinces on adding medical cannabis to provincial formularies so that the provinces pay for cannabis as they currently do with most other necessary medicines.
4) Initiate and carry out an immediate federal audit of the entire program, as demanded by the Canadian AIDS Society, MP Libby Davies, and Senator Pierre-Claude Nolin.
Please consider sending a Letter to the Editor to Canadian newspapers. If you are a Canadian citizen, please give special attention to the newspapers closest to your hometown.
Letters of 200 words or less have the best chance of print. Personal testimonials from qualified patients, friends and family members also will likely receive greater attention from most newspaper editors.
Please consider using at least one of the points above, but, perhaps, not all of them.
Thanks for your effort and support.
It's not what others do it's what YOU do
**********************************************************************
Newspaper Contacts for Your Letters to the Editor
The majority of the newspaper clippings about this exploitation of patients may be found at
http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Prairie+Plant+Systems
Some articles and editorials may be found at
http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm
To find the letter to the editor contacts by province please go to http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm - using the 'List by Area' dropdown, select a province and then click the 'List by Area' button. Click 'Contact' for the contact information of a selected newspaper.
**********************************************************************
Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.
[email protected]
**********************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US COPIES OF YOUR LETTERS
Please post copies of your letter writing efforts - or report your other actions - to the sent letter list ( [email protected] ) if you are signed up for that list, or by emailing copies directly to [email protected] if you are not. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts.
Joining the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts.
To join the Sent LTE email list see
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form
**********************************************************************
Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource
===
DrugSense provides many services at no charge, but they are not free to produce. Your contributions make DrugSense and its Media Awareness Project (MAP) happen. Please donate today. Our secure Web server at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm accepts credit cards.
Or, mail your check or money order to:
DrugSense
14252 Culver Drive #328
Irvine, CA 92604-0326.
(800) 266 5759
DrugSense is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the expensive, ineffective, and destructive "War on Drugs." Donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.