Source: Maclean's, August 17, 1998 v111 n16 p47(1).

                                                                         
 Subjects:  Marijuana - Therapeutic use
            AIDS patients - Cases
                                                                              

Full Text COPYRIGHT 1998 Maclean Hunter (Canada)

Lawyers for a Toronto AIDS sufferer who has smoked marijuana to alleviate the
nausea caused by his illness and the medication he uses argued in a Toronto
court that he should be exempted from a federal law that makes it an offence
to grow or possess the drug. Saying that marijuana improves his appetite and
lifts his spirits, Jim Wakeford, 53, argued that Ottawa, by forbidding him
from using the drug, violated his right to life, liberty and security of
person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1993,
Wakeford said he started smoking marijuana two years ago. Now, he said, it is
"the only substance that makes my day-to-day life bearable." Alan Young, a
lawyer for Wakeford, suggested to reporters that Ottawa could set up an agency
to legally grow marijuana for medical use, or that the RCMP could turn over
some of the illegal cannabis it seizes for distribution to people with a
proven medical need. A federal lawyer argued that Wakeford had undermined his
case by not using any of the legal drugs that mimic the effect of marijuana.
                                                                              
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