Prior to Feb. 7, I posted the following letter that I sent to the Alberta Minister of Justice and Attorney General regarding Grant Krieger situation. Tuesday, January 23, 2001 Legislature Office #320, 10800 - 97 Avenue Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6 dhancock@assembly.ab.ca Dear Hon. David Hancock, Minister I am writing you out of great concern regarding the matter of Mr. Grant Krieger and his necessity to use cannabis to help ease his multiple sclerosis symptoms. Yesterday Grant Krieger turned himself in to serve a 22-day prison sentence. Mr. Krieger has said the last time he was behind bars he was confined to a wheelchair in a week because of the pain from his multiple sclerosis. This time, because his health has been complicated by a car accident last November, he expects to be wheelchair-bound within three days. While it would be entirely logical to supervise, monitor and schedule the required amount sufficient to alleviate his multiple sclerosis symptoms and related pain, surely you cannot mean to withhold his medication. Would the Office of Alberta Justice withhold insulin from a diabetic? As you have the ability to facilitate Mr. Grant Krieger's right to possess cannabis under section 7 of the Charter, confiscating his medicine can only be construed as cruel and unusual punishment in contravention of section 12. I believe your decision to withhold his medication is wrong and I can only hope that this letter will give you cause to reconsider, however, for the purpose of expediting resolution favourable to the best interests of Mr. Grant Krieger, this letter will also be forwarded to the following: *The Honourable Ralph Klein, Premier: Premier@gov.ab.ca *The Alberta Human Rights: humanrights@gov.ab.ca Thank you for your consideration and immediate response. A concerned Canadian, Wayne Phillips This is his reply, Dear Mr. Phillips Your email of January 23, 2001 to the Honourable Dave Hancock, QC., Minister of Justice and Attorney General regarding Mr. Gant Krieger and concerns over withholding his cannabis while incarcerated at Edmonton Remand Centre was forwarded to me for review and reply. Under provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, specifies about Mr. Krieger's case cannot be divulged to others without his written permission. That being said, health care staff assess all offenders who are admitted to provincial correctional facilities in Alberta. Medication is not withheld, however, offenders are not permitted to supply their own medication. If medication is required, the centre physician will review the case and perscribe accordingly. Incarcerated offenders who suffer from symptoms of diseases such as multiple sclerosis or any other ailments are assessed and receive medication as required based on consultation with attending physicians and it is ultimately the physician's medical decision. Thank you for sharing your views and allowing me the opportunity to respond. Sincerely, Arnold Galet Assistant Deputy Minister Correctional Services Division The following is my response (to his reply), Minister of Justice and Attorney General: and/or Assistant Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Division Re: Your response of Feb. 7, 2001 Sir, his appropiate medicine was refused and now he must go to court to have it returned to him. And while the Minister of Health poses for photo ops ands speak of balanced approaches, commpassion, and justice, the realities of Mr Grant Krieger situation is but a shadow of the person mentioned below. The only differences I can see is that Grant Krieger has a loving family and the person mentioned below didn't.... And while you who are the powers to be slowly Americanize us, just how long do you think it will take before the kind of reality that entrenches America will happen here, if it is not happening already. The manner of response combined with the realities of Mr Krieger's predicament indicates that it in fact is. Thank You Wayne Phillips Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 09:52:24 -0500 From: "Kay Lee" <kaylee1@charter.net> Subject: A MEDICAL, MORAL PENAL HORROR This is one of the most miserable stories I've ever been asked to share. I hope you read all the way to the end, because any of you with a conscience will be as horrified as I am. I know about the medical properties of marijuana because I've done the research, but those who don't may say Ned deserves whatever happens to him because he 'broke the law', which is the most hard-hearted, repulsive, ignorant concept I can imagine in this case. One day, when everyone knows the truth, when they finally realize how badly they've been fooled, it will be too late for people like Ned. In fact, it may be too late for you or someone you love. You have to wake up now, and realize your government and their CEO buddies have been lying to you for at least 60 years. They have used the system against the people and if we don't join in to make it all stop, whatever excuse they use, within 20 years half of us will be prisoners, the other half keepers. With the cooperation of it's own people, Freedom will have been efficiently and effectively destroyed in America. The historical failure of prohibition policies; the unproductive, destructive 30 year drug war; the mad rush that lands innocents in prison; the mass incarceration and warehousing of citizens: If you don't know it's all about money, you just haven't studied the situation. If you don't know enough yet to help change bad laws...please, please...learn more. In Sorrow, Kay Lee ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I borrowed the words for this story straight from Ned's website at http://otherdogsworld.homestead.com/FREENED.html I'd like to give the author credit but do not know who wrote the story: Ned's real name is John McPeek. He's 37, and a native of Maricopa County, Tempe, Arizona. Ned is severely disabled. He can't feel a thing from his neck down. Quadriplegic, like that actor, Christopher Reeve. Ned and his crippled, infected, atrophied, bag of bones body have been imprisoned in the Arizona state prison medical ward since 1998. He has 5 years to go. His charge? Possession of marajuana. Ned is a card carrying member of NORML, and smokes pot at certain times of the day. It eases the muscle spasms that make his legs curl up from cramping. He can't feel the cramping, but the spasms make him jerk violently, (sending the contents of his tray table flying everywhere), and distorting his body into unnatural positions. Even more importantly, the weed staves off the intensity of the grand mal seizures that come and go according to the toxin levels in his system, ie: blood poison caused by infections. Ned is not a violent offender, or a flight risk. Just the opposite. He is kind and generous to a fault. He has the patience of a Saint. He loves kids and dogs, a typical dude, except for the fact that a jeep wreck, in 1986, left him a paraplegic. That's bad? 10 years later, in 1996, Ned was in another car wreck, shattering his leg and the one arm he had some use in. He was taken to one of the best hospitals in the Valley, St Josephs, where the doctor that treated Ned, decided since Ned couldn't feel or use his legs anyway, there was no reason to set the bones. This eventually resulted in Ned's bones healing crooked and his body curling up into a tight ball, disabling him from using a wheelchair or straightening his limbs out. Prior to going to prison, and following his second crippling accident, Ned was confined to his bed permanently. His body was too twisted to sit up in his wheelchair. Bolts were screwing out his shattered elbow and wrist from the crappy job the doctor did (as an after thought, in an attempt to restore mobility), and Ned stopped eating. He got worse. He developed bed sores that wouldn't heal, and were getting infected. Private nurses were hired to come in twice a day. The long swabs they used to clean out his sores would sink 3 or more inches into the big holes in his hips and butt. Ned was just bones jutting through flesh and he had to purchase a bed that was water and air, with all kinds of regulators, so his weight would shift at intervals to take pressure off the sores. On top of hell, Ned's live in "girlfriend", Connie's unsavory past starts catching up to her, when she began letting her prison penpals parole to Ned's house. She could have cared less about Ned's weed mixing with felons. It was a straight selfish act on her part, and it got out of hand. The criminal element draws heat (and parole officers) to Ned's house. Ned is too sick to do anything about it, and too busy trying to stay alive. So, anyway, yadda, yadda, yadda, and one day, a visiting parole officer does an illegal search on Ned's house. Ned, a virtual vegetable, gets the whole outlaw gang of shit dumped on him. The Pigs, (on up) think Ned's a gold mine. In reality, Ned can't even afford to pay for an attorney to make his court dates. He can't make them himself. He is too ill, his care-givers won't let him get out of bed. On the day when Ned felt he could get out of bed. (we are talking days, not months or years) He went straight down to Tempe Court, where that day, he is convicted and sentenced by a judge, to 7 years in prison for misconduct with a weapon and drug sales. The contraband, obtained by an illegal search by a pension hungry parole officer, was locked in a file cabinet. Ned had no knowledge of it being there. Ned is paralyzed from the neck down. He can't shoot a gun. He can't pick up a fucking gun. Ned was in the middle of a big lawsuit with the hospital, that would have compensated the damage he's further had to suffer, but the Arizona criminal justice system helped the doctor get away with his criminal negligence when they decided to lock Ned up for 7 years. If that is all not horrifying enough, Ned, (who is obviously not a flight risk) is taken to prison that day. He had none of his medication and none of the stuff he needs to keep himself alive. Getting vertical for the drive to court, and court appearance, alone, caused Ned extreme discomfort from dizzying vertigo and nausea. So they send him to D.O.C. for 5 days for prison classification? Where in the Criminal Code does it say anything about TORTURE? If Neds' life doesn't fully suck already, society diminishes it's value further, by taking what little is left of him and torturing him in an ill equipped prison ward for 7 years. For smoking weed that he can't even touch. Weed that somebody else buys for him, holds up to his mouth, and lights for him. Ned couldn't do it if somebody else didn't do it for him. Seems to me the pigs went after the wrong person. Like they care. " Why are they doing this to Ned!??" It costs' several hundred per month for medical supplies to keep Ned alive. Arizona Department of Correction is getting 5x the funding for having Ned in prison, compared to that of a non-handicapped prisoner. Ned is being exploited as a means to capitalize on these funds, but while ADOC gets this bump up in funds for these 7 years, Ned lost his funding for these critical materials that aid in his existence, for the rest of his fucking life! GREED, and arbitrary marijuana laws, have lost Ned his father's military pension. The felony conviction cost him both his Dad's and his own social security benefits. He lost his quality medical insurance, that paid for in-home care givers. Connie has looted his bank accounts, and got his (100 thousand dollar) wheelchair-lift van repo-ed. She took out a second mortgage on his fine house, in the finest neighborhood in Tempe, and then lost it to foreclosure. His mother died three weeks into hisincarceration. He wasn't allowed to attend her funeral. He had asked me to please take his dog of 14 years, Nitris, but I haven't been able to find her now that his house is gone. I am afraid to tell Ned that part. Please check out expose his situation before he dies in the medical prison ward, a quad with bedsores going untreated and blood poison from infections. He's been in 2 years already and he has 5 more to go. Could you please help expose his situation before he dies in the medical prison ward, a quad with bedsores going untreated and blood poison from infections. He was up for clemency Feb 1, 2001 and was denied. He has lost the will to fight. I love you. Respectfully, Jill Pike otherdog@hotmail.com Ned's Website: http://otherdogsworld.homestead.com/FREENED.html You can write Ned: John McPeek #141451 C.H.U.B. 1 ASPC FLORENCE CENTRAL HEALTH UNIT PO BOX 8200 FLORENCE, ARIZONA 85232 null
Thanks superjoint, what would be a great help though is if a bunch of people from Europe could join in by sending some e-mails to Canadian politicians...even if it's something short such as ... stop persecuting your citizens...end Cannabis Prohibition Now! the more we're all in their faces about this issue, the better the chance we can win this it's definitely not a spectator sport over here and even worse in the U.S. please