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My Story - How I Got Busted - From the Heart - Constitutional Challenge - My State of Mind
From the heart with all the bitterness, hope and anger. by Mark x
As I understand this is the 21st Century and, just to confirm, I live in Toronto, Canada and not some medieval country like the States. I find myself forced to take Canadian government to court because Cannabis I was growing was taken from me. I never though of myself as criminal even if I did things I knew were considered criminal. I simply presumed, in my dumbfounded innocence, that once caught I would explain to the judge the reason why I grow (given this being a rational Country) and I would go home.
I did go home, on $75K bail and a prosecutor describing my "crime" as HEINOUS. To be fair, for the shitty job public defendants do, mine had to pull out a dictionary to precisely define HEINOUS crime. The judge agreed that it was not HEINOUS crime. Since I could not contact my lawyer because the cops denied it twice, and to avoid jail conditions I would sign my life over to the devil I agreed to whatever they wanted and I left. You can read the story about the bust itself.
Please understand that I hate sharing my personal information. I would like to be known as simply Mark, Mark the Accountant, Mark the Pollack, the Teacher, brother, Son or boyfriend and not a Criminal Pothead the media makes out of me and my friends every fucking day of my life.
Cannabis makes me normal, normal in a sense I understand and everyone is comfortable with, not the pile of stress and anxiety my life is otherwise. But I find myself in a position where I have no choice. The Crown wants me to plead guilty when I am not. I may face a fine, a sentence, suspended or not, who cares, I would still be found guilty of growing the only substance that gave my life any meaning - CANNABIS.
I am a medicinal user of Cannabis. I have been a medical user of Cannabis since 1992 when I discovered that Cannabis allows me to calm down from the high I always felt. The only way I can describe the relief my brain gets from smoking Cannabis is like going from a car driving at 100 km/h yet stuck in 1st gear grinding itself into destruction to a car that runs through gears like any other. Medically this may mean many things, depression or anxiety relief, ADD or Borderline Personality Disorder but for me the bottom line is that Cannabis is part of my life and it always will be. I have tried Luvox (SSRI fluvoxamine, made me downright crazy), Norpramin (Desipramine, made me sleepy, drowsy and uncaring), Prozac (SSRI fluoxetine, no effect), BuSpar (buspirone, worked for a while but stopped) and Paxil (SSRI paroxetine, bingo) and Cannabis which was always there for me when life sucked to the point of suicide.
I am going ahead in challenging, to what amounts to be the only obstacle to growing medicinal cannabis in this country, the MMARs (Medical Marijuana Access Regulations). I am representing myself thus far. I have people who are willing to represent me pro bono. I have affidavits to prove my cannabis is for medicinal purposes only and so far ..... no one is against it, no one but the lawyers in Ottawa trying to define and re-define the MMARs to the point of ridicule. This needs to change. The Cannabis Community has already done so much work on this matter that I almost feel guilty to be the first one (it seems so far) to challenge the law after Hitzip2 decision in Ontario. Please show support in my quest. Thank You. Sincerely |
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