We're currently a month away from the expiry date whereby all Canadians who are legally entitled to grow and/or use the medicinal Cannabis plant are to cease production, destroy all product, and fork out mucho dough to someone in a white coat who can apparently grow it better, safer, cleaner.....pffft. Just as an aside, NO commercial grower can grow Tomatoes, Cukes, Beans, or Squash better than my own gardening genius parents can in their fertile garden, so I personally think that's crap. But .. we live in a world where money trumps all and they've all but found a way to profit off of this plant .... the very plant they were demonizing just a week before. The very same plant that has put thousands of us in jail. The very same plant that would see me get a mandatory minimum sentence of one year if I were to grow one in my tenement~ more than a child molester I'll add.
Now, do you remember when the changes first came out about this many months ago? You would have thought they had found the magic bean that would grow us up to heaven! Profits were estimated. Total numbers of potential 'customers' piled up giving the conservative capitalist piglets semi's and dreams of sugar-plum fairies dropping loads of cash in their laps. It's ALMOST like they forgot for a moment that it's the REEFER we're talkin' about!!
So ... it would seem that simply because PROFITS are in the future, this plant is not so bad after all? Huh. Funny how that works, eh?
A friend of mine has Hypothyroid and Fibromyalgia. I was going to attempt to put into words what this feels like. But fuck it! The only thing that matters is that this friend has found something that helps her with these ailments without side effects, without a hangover, without addiction. Until they mandate we all be micro-chipped~and don't laugh too hard at that~ that body is still HER BODY. And in my opinion and the opinion of millions upon millions of us, she deserves the right to choose how to treat said body! This same friend has children though and as too many of us know, Children's Aid societies on both sides of the border are still demonizing this plant and taking children away from even LEGAL cannabis patients. This is almost more funny at times than it is infuriating to me, since you can have bottles of M&M or Smartie-looking Oxycontin pills in your house and no Children's Aid society worker will question you about that. This is funny to me because Cannabis looks to a kid like dried grass, moss, or even potpourri; Hillbilly heroin looks like candy. I think the purple-y pink coating might even be sweet.
When the blatancy of the logic is at this level of blindness, no stinking acronym is gonna cut it ....
WHAT THE FUCK?
Now, back to my friend. She wants to be a legal Cannabis patient. I think she only allows herself to use Cannabis now when her chicklets are away from home, or perhaps in extreme times of agony. But the fear of losing said Chicklets is a total buzz-kill to say the least. She likely feels the relief in her stiff, sore, tired muscles and then feels the stress of the ever-possible "what-if". So in an attempt to move towards that responsible, law-abiding, and rule-following program, she asked her Doctor about applying for approval with the Medical Marijuana Access Program (MMAR) .... soon to be the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR). In my opinion it should be the Program Whereby Canada Sells Out It's Citizens For Profit (PWCSOICFR) ... but y'know acronyms and brand-ability. It's gotta be catchy to be remembered!
So here's the seed for this blog post. Here's what sparked a fire in my gut this morning. My friend's Medical Doctor's response to her inquiry into becoming legal was this, "Google Dr. So-and-So and he'll sign for you and fill out the forms for $250."... tax receipt not included I'm sure. This is CANADA!! We have single-payer healthcare!!! And though we ALL fear that it may soon end, it hasn't ended yet has it? If she were to go to a Psychiatrist, Psychologist, Oncologist, or any other "ist" out there, would she have to pay??? Yes the forms are lengthy, but it's not like Doctors have such legible handwriting that she couldn't fill them out herself before the visit!
It saddens me to say this, but Canada already has a somewhat hidden two-tiered healthcare system. This friend of mine, who grew up healthy, trim, and active quite suddenly became wracked with body-pain and fatigue shortly after her son was born. Now each day is a struggle. You think you know stiffness? You don't have a clue. And yes there are pharmaceuticals out there. We've all seen the commercials for those pills~ as if advertising for MEDICINE is ethical! Doctors hate it when we self-diagnose, but self-prescribing is fine when profit is involved? That's the message isn't it? Well get this ... it cost my friend $300 to see the Doctor she has now! And NO! She didn't get a tax receipt.
Its a domino effect of capitalistic piglets using sick, tired, and desperate-for-relief people just like you and me. Who has an extra $300 for anything?? And why should we have to pay to get permission to use a plant that Doctors haven't been trained on? Trained ... it hasn't really even been studied by Governmental agencies. Seriously, I and likely 80% of my over 600 facebook friends know more than YOUR doctor knows about this plant. And yet we need their permission to use it.
Huh. See why I get so pissed about this? Not everything should be a profitable business.
No comments:
Post a Comment