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Reefer Madness: Nurses want no part of dope smoke
By: Shaune MacKinlay, The Daily News, 12/18/03

A medical marijuana user with Health Canada permission to light up angered nurses at the QEII Health Sciences Centre this week who said they shouldn't have to breathe in their patient's second-hand dope smoke.

The patient on unit 9A of the Victoria General site smoked marijuana for the past week in her room, prompting staff complaints to the nurse manager and hospital administration, and a call to the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union.

"I don't think anybody even thought of it, staff being exposed to that, because you can experience symptoms being in the same room as it," said NSGEU president Joan Jessome yesterday.

No policy

A compromise was reached yesterday after the union's occupational health officer spoke with the hospital. The patient, expected to be discharged after the weekend, will now have to smoke up in a room with an open window with towels shoved under the door to contain the smoke, Jessome said.

Capital Health, which operates the QEII, has no policy governing the use of medical marijuana, but one is in the works, said spokesman Geoff Wilson said.

"It's a fairly new thing, so you want to do it right, not fast," he said.

In this case, the unit's nurse manager bought an air purifier for the room and met with staff to hear concerns, he said.

Wilson said there's no question the hospital will find a way to accommodate patients who use marijuana as part of their treatment.

"That has to be our first concern, and we have to find a way to work around some of the inconveniences," he said.

Debbie Stultz-Giffin, chairwoman of Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana, said she wrote to Capital Health almost a year ago about the need for policies governing patient marijuana use.

Can't do without

If staff members are worried about breathing in the smoke, patients could eat the marijuana in their food - a less effective means of delivery - or inhale it through a hand-held vaporizer that doesn't create smoke, she said.

Stultz-Giffin, who smokes weed to control pain caused by multiple sclerosis, said she could not do without it if she were hospitalized.

"It's so vital that we have access to our medication all the time," she said.

Many patients who have marijuana permits would not be well enough to smoke it outside, she said.

"It's really essential that they not end up being treated as lepers out of the process, and be driven to the out-of-doors in order to ensure that they have access to their medication," she said.