JOHN LAPPA/THE SUDBURY STAR
Alexander Stewart of Sudbury is on a hunger strike.
Stewart, 54, has embarked on a hunger strike to draw attention to the need for better access to medical marijuana for those who have a licence from Health Canada to purchase it.
Stewart does.
But, as he told me in a visit to his Donovan home, that licence isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Stewart was diagnosed with chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD), specifically emphysema, about 41/2 years ago around his 50th birthday. Until then, he had been working as a millwright all over Ontario, for the last 10 years at nuclear plants like Darlington, Pickering and Bruce Mines. He loved his work, was good at it and made good money.
A pack-a-day smoker Stewart, who never went to a doctor, went in for a checkup and a lung X-ray, which he had never had.
He hadn't been feeling well, had been dropping from his high school weight of 145 pounds and X-rays showed emphysema. He was referred to a lung specialist, but it took him two years to see him.
Stewart's working career came to an end in March 2011 at a mine site in Matachewan after he caught a flu bug making the rounds at the camp. After three days in bed, he could barely get up. When he did, he couldn't breathe. An air ambulance was called and he was flown to Kirkland Lake hospital.
Last year, Stewart was hospitalized eight times in Sudbury for flareups of emphysema. He describes them as "horrible, this feeling inside, you know you're losing your breath and you start to panic ...
"You're told how to breathe, but you can't and you start hyper-ventilating."
He calls it "the cliff," the point at which he needs an ambulance "or I'm done."
If he can remain calm and breathe properly, it helps. But "when you reach that point, you can't."
When Stewart was released from one bout in hospital last September, his weight had dropped to 106 pounds on his 5-foot-7 frame. He applied to Health Canada for a licence to purchase medical marijuana and a B.C. doctor helped him get one that qualifies him to use 10 grams a day.
He has yet to access marijuana legally.
He has obtained it from friends and relatives who have medical marijuana licences and, he admits, purchased it illegally on the street. Stewart also admits to using marijuana recreationally most of his life.
Now, marijuana gives him an appetite, which helped increase his weight to 125 pounds. Stewart said he's on a list for a lung transplant, but only if his weight rises to 129 pounds.
He quit smoking when diagnosed with COPD, so he steeps marijuana in a tea. It quells anxiety, eases cramps, aches and pain, and boosts his mood.
Stewart called Tweed Inc., one of the licensed medical marijuana providers on Health Canada's website, to order medical marijuana after he received his licence. A representative told him, and The Sudbury Star confirmed it this week, that "customers" (Stewart calls himself a patient, not a customer) must go on a waiting list because no product will be available until the end of August or early September. Tweed only opened in March, and it hasn't been able to keep up with demand.
A spokesman for Tweed told The Star it sells 25 strains of marijuana, varying in price from $5-$12 per gram. At the highest rate, that's $336 an ounce.
"You can go around the corner and buy it off Joe for the same price. What's up with that?" asks Stewart. (He says marijuana sells on the street from $200 to $240 an ounce.)
The Tweed sales representative said the company has a "compassionate" rate with a 20% discount, dropping the price to $4-$9.60 a gram.
A spokeswoman for Health Canada said 21 companies are licensed to produce medical marijuana, although only 13 are listed on Health Canada's website. Two Sudbury-area companies are applying to grow medical marijuana, but neither is approved.
There is no limit on what medical marijuana producers can charge for the marijuana they produce. Stewart calls them "legal drug dealers. That's all they are."
Stewart said the federal government's marijuana laws discriminate against people who can't afford the steep prices being charged for medical marijuana.
On a disability pension, his wife, Sara, 55, has quit her job as a personal support worker to help care for him and she earns a very small pension.
They have about $500 a month for food and other necessities after their mortgage and other bills are paid.
Stewart, whose weight has fallen to 117 pounds, said he's going on a hunger strike to make a point.
"I want marijuana to be free for people who desperately need it and can't afford to purchase it because it helps so many people."
Whether you agree with him or not about the merits of medical marijuana, it's hard to argue with one point he makes.
"If you're rich and sick, you can use that stuff that helps you. If you're poor and sick, you don't."
Stewart said he's tired of the fight to get a "medicine" he is now legally entitled to obtain, if only he could afford it.
"I'm tired of it. I'm sick and tired of it. I feel like giving up is what it is. I don't know what else to do ... I just want to make a statement."
Stewart insists he's proceeding with the hunger strike, which isn't a hardship because he has no appetite anyway.
"I'm scared as heck. I don't know what else to do."
He knows there are other people in Canada, Ontario, in Sudbury, who are in the same boat he is in, and he would like to hear from them.
He wants them to email him at alexstewart@rocketmail.com.
Ideally, Stewart would like to receive free medical marijuana for those who need it or have the price reduced so people on disability pensions and those on low incomes can afford it.
"I just feel like I'm backed into a corner now. I have a feeling I have no choice. I want to get something going with people in Canada who are in the same position as I am and I know there's lots of people that are.
"And if we get together and fight for this, maybe we can make some changes."
carol.mulligan@sunmedia.ca
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