In early 2004 I was working at a tire manufacturer. I was working at what was called the Pallet Post. It was the final step before the tires are sent out to the warehouse.
On this job, a person is required to take each tire, place it on a metal pallet that would hold up to 32 tires, 4 rows of 8.
The production expectations of the factory was well over 10,000 tires a day.
I was moving 2,000 to 2,500 tires in a 12 hour shift.
By the end of the year I was suffering from major pain in my shoulders, neck , arms and back. I went to see my doctor and he suggested physiotherapy.
I didn’t want to cause problems with my boss, so I waited until I could get physio through my Provincial health coverage, instead of through Workers Compensation. On the final day of 2004 my boss offers me a new position.
He offered me the position of Flow Coordinator/ Plant Foreman.
I was so excited to move forward and away from the Pallet Post.
I was training with the current Flow Coordinator for 6 months as I was taking Physio to help my pain issues.
3 days before I had finished my training, my boss walked me off site, and said that I was non-conducive to the work environment. No real reason, but I could only conclude that he didn’t want me to become a liability in the future.
For two year I was left to deliver pizza and do kitchen prep, because my pain just never stopped and I had no support to help me get back to a real job.
During is time I hacked my hand open with a knife and ended up on WCB.
On one occasion, while talking to my representative, I mentioned the problems I had finding a job that paid more because of my constant pain.
I told her about my last job and what I have gone through.
My doctor had me taking pain killers and I was so sick of feeling bad.
She told me that Workers Comp had changed some rules and a person could go back 5 years on a claim if they had just cause and a loss of income. I opened a claim but was denied because I continued to make money…In 2007 to 2008 I was working at a warehouse and was laid off due to my growing pain and slower ability to get the job done safe.
This was around the same time I was seeing a specialist about my neck.
It turned out that while I was moving 2,000 tires a day in a repetitive motion, I have worn out the discs between C4 and C5, C5 and C6, C6 and C7 and some other damage as well. The diagnosis is called Cervical Spinal Stenosis.
In 2009 I had an MRI done but wasn’t offered a copy of the images, but when I had another MRI done, technology had progressed.
So now, I had been working about 2 years to have the WCB recognize my injury. Now they could not deny what I had reported to my doctor in 2004 was due to my job and that I had worked a year too long with the injury and wore the discs so bad that, surgeons chose not to use the surgery method. I was so close to breaking through to the brain stem, that I was told I could be paralyzed with any wrong movement.
While being on pain meds, I started to become ill and tired and fatigued till I just couldn’t move. The pain never left and I would spend days, even weeks laying around the house, because the weight of my head was unbearable.
Kadian,
was my last attempt at a morphine opiate. I decided to investigate other options when I discovered Cesamet which is a synthetic form of cannabis. I had my doctor prescribe it. I found it worked so well, that I could get up and back to work. Eventually my doctor prescribed Sativex because it is advised for pain, but my health insurance coverage wouldn’t cover it.
My Cesamet was also stopped and I had to go to a cheaper generic brand called Nabilone.
It took me until 2011 to follow all of the appointments with pain specialists and therapists that WBC required, and was still feeling the side effects of pharmaceuticals. I decided I wanted to try medicinal marijuana. If the natural plant would help me, then why would I take pills that were disrupting my kidneys, liver, digestion and heart health, to just name a few things.
When I asked my pain specialist, here in Nova Scotia, who could advise my family doctor to prescribe MM, she said no. There would be no point because in a few years, Steven Harper is going to repeal the Marihuana Medical Access Program for Canadians and replace it with the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR). I was disappointed and felt like I was fighting a losing battle.
I was given another follow up appointment for the end of 2012, so I spent the next year doing research and putting my thoughts in line so I could state my case when I met with her again.
The day came and I had put together enough to win my case and she prescribed me one gram per day, what I was using on my own to help me safely function and not get sicker from the side effects of the drugs.
I applied to Health Canada, and when June 2013 rolled in, so did my licence carry and my permit to grow my own medicine.
Now, when Harper tries to change the laws and, take away our rights to grow a plant, I have something to fight with. Fight for my right that his own government gave me.
Two months after I received my papers, my wife was asked to relocate to Calgary. I had to go. I couldn’t finish my first grow. I got to Calgary and found that there were no compassion clubs and very few people in social media groups, wanted to get to know me. People didn’t even want to talk about medicinal cannabis. I was lost in a million people and no medicine. I had to go back to Nabilone and black market, for relief.April 01 2014 ushered in the new MMPR and also created some class action law suits against Health Canada, in it’s wake.
I have been able to continue using medicinal marijuana since, because of one of the suits, Allard vs Health Canada and so have tens of thousands of other Canadians.
Since May of 2015, we have been back in Nova Scotia and I have been fortunate enough to be close to a compassion club, and recently this month, a new dispensary Tomorrow, Wednesday February 24 at 9am, the Allard v. Canada Federal Court Trial Division decision is coming down.
The story is much longer, but tomorrow, we will see how much longer it goes on.
We either win and become incorporated with the new system that the Liberals will set forth, or we lose and appeal.
If we lose and appeal, then it may cause the Liberal government to wait with their new plan of legalizing or decriminalizing.
We could also win and the government appeals, causing more issues for those 30 some thousand citizens of Canada who have been given the right to grow their own medicine.
Let’s hope for the best case scenario …