MARIJUANA'S RELATIVE SAFETY HAS BEEN STRESSED IN NUMEROUS REPORTS, INCLUDING THOSE FUNDED, AND THEN SHELVED, BY OUR OWN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
(The Senate Committee Report; 2002 and the LeDain Commission; 1973)

DID YOU KNOW That 93% of Canadians endorse the use of medical marijuan
(MacLean’s Magazine; 2006), AND at least 400,000 Canadians depend on medical marijuana to help treat unrelenting symptoms of chronic progressive diseases like cancer, MS, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and arthritis? (Canadian Medical Association Journal; May 15, 2001; 164 (10))

Despite this, the Conservatives moralistic stance on marijuana and their blatant disregard for medical marijuana patients, has led to the drafting of Bill C-26, the omnibus drug bill. Rob Nicholson, the federal Justice Minister, projects that Bill C-26 will “protect Canadian families and communities.”

In fact, it will do just the opposite. If this proposed legislation demanding mandatory minima becomes law, Canadian courts will be clogged and our already over-stressed jails will be overflowing with people who rely on medicinal marijuana as an integral part of their health treatment regime and those who assist them with maintaining their medication supply. Families will be ripped apart and suffer. Where’s the compassion?

Small Mom & Pop type growers only growing a small medical marijuana garden for personal use and/or to assist a friend or loved one with maintaining their medication supply will disappear. The true criminal element, the real black market, will actually flourish. The quality of marijuana on the streets will be suspect for medical consumption and prices will escalate. More innocent people will die in our streets and our communities as gangs battle to protect their increasingly lucrative territory.

Harper truly is striving to create an American style war on drugs that will be counterproductive and a waste of taxpayer’s dollars. Do Canadians really want to model our drug laws after a country that incarcerates 1 in approximately every 100 adults?

A recently released report from the Pew Center on the States confirmed that 30 million Americans are behind bars. The Canadian penal system is already in crisis without mimicking Bush’s lead by placing ideology ahead of science and logic as new drug policy is drafted.

With the federal medical marijuana program only offering legal protection to 2329 patients to date, hundreds of thousands of ill Canadians will left out on a limb. Chronically and critically ill patients rely on medical marijuana because pharmaceuticals have failed them due to devastating side effects, or they need medical marijuana to tolerate pharmaceuticals. Who is being protected by threatening to send these individuals to jail?

Please join MUMM as we work to promote change. We should ALL be free to choose!

UNITED WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!