Activist pumped for PM's pot plan
Prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau promised to address legalization 'right away'
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Monday, October 26, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Kim MacNearney spent last Monday night glued to a computer screen streaming the federal election results, which she said "changes everything."
Kim MacNearney, a marijuana-legalization activist licensed to grow medical marijuana, said she's excited Justin Trudeau is prime minister elect because she expects he'll make good on promises to get working on legalizing the narcotic plant "right away". - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
The marijuana advocate licensed to grow medical marijuana said she's counting on prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau to make good on election promises to legalize marijuana "right away."
MacNearney's children were briefly taken from her after she and her husband were charged with possession and cultivation following a police raid on their Northland Trailer Park home in 2009.
The mother of four said the Liberal platform promises big changes for marijuana advocates and she expects the party's majority-government win will give them the momentum to deliver.
Last month, Trudeau made his pot-related promise to reporters gathered for a question session in Surrey, B.C.
"The Liberal Party is committed to legalizing and regulating marijuana," he said.
He didn't give specific timelines but did say legalization could take anywhere from a month to a year or two to make happen if he was elected.
Trudeau said the Conservative government promoted anti-marijuana policies, which ultimately put money in the pockets of criminal organizations, adding that legalizing it would "remove the criminal element."
MacNearney who met Trudeau at the Explorer Hotel during his January visit to the city
said said she doesn't expect it to happen over night but Trudeau seems to hold a progressive attitude.
"I know he's got a lot more depth than people give him credit for. I think he's what we need," she said.
MacNearney said examples of shifting attitudes are demonstrated in the way existing laws are enforced. While there are laws that make the sale of paraphernalia pipes and other smoking devices illegal, those laws are seldom enforced.
MacNearney said she hopes the new government will make it easier for people to use the drug medicinally.
Chronic pain
She said she has suffered from chronic pain since having emergency spinal surgery at age 21. Medication prescribed by doctors destroyed her digestive system, she said, so she turned to marijuana as a means of coping. MacNearney applied for a medical marijuana licence which she received in 2010, too late to make a difference in the trial which saw her and her husband, Craig MacNearney, found guilty and sentenced to house arrest, probation and community service. Their sentence was complete in June of 2014.
In 2014, Health Canada told Yellowknifer there were 30 people licensed to possess medical marijuana in the NWT and seven were authorized to grow it.
MacNearney said the majority of licensed city users are using the drug for palliative care, but an even greater number use it illegally to treat chronic pain.
"Arthritis, chronic pain, diabetes is one as well," she said. "Unfortunately people are using it for palliative care instead of progressive treatments. I have so many people that contact me from around the North, from the smaller communities, saying, 'Look I use it for this and there's no doctor in town. When the doctor does fly in I talk to them about it and they're not interested.'"
The Liberal's newly elected NWT MP Michael McLeod, did not respond to requests for comment before press time.
Coun. Dan Wong who came out in favour of legalizing marijuana after MacNearney's trial, telling Yellowknifer, "I have smoked marijuana responsibly before" is running for the Yellowknife North MLA seat next month and declined comment on the issue.
MacNearney got her licence from an out-of-territory doctor, because, she said, a territorial doctor won't sign off on one.
"I know less than a handful of people who have gotten approved in town," she said. "Here in the North there's very limited access. Doctors just aren't approving."
In 2014, a federal court granted an injunction upholding medical marijuana growing licences, when changes to medical marijuana regulations were set to restrict users to buying from government-approved grow-ops. Territorial growers were relieved, but MacNearney said the it's now impossible territorial residents to get new growing licenses, and doctors aren't approving prescription licenses either.
She said critics who accused him during the campaign of being inexperienced and shallow underestimate him.
"He's gone through a lot of hardships in his life," she said. "I think he's got more of his father in him than we've seen. He's lost a sibling. Going through hardships like that gives you a lot more perspective.
