Myrden from LEAP says time to change drug laws

“I expect significant response and that the Canadian government finally starts doing something.”
Former jail guard and current tireless activist for the legalization of marijuana, especially for therapeutic use, Alison Myrden couldn’t be happier over news of the report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which substantially supports the legalization of narcotics use as an alternative to a drug war that is basically impossible to win.
“It’s as if they’re saying ‘hey, you’ve made a mistake engaging in a drug war.’ Pretty well what I’ve been saying the past 20 years,” says the LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) representative.
Thanks to her efforts as well as those by many others, today, Myrden says, there are 17,000 Canadians with legal access to cannabis. She warns the road is still long, however: “There’s still a long battle ahead.”
But Myrden isn’t the type to give up. Since she was 13, she has battled progressive multiple sclerosis, and as a 20-year-old, she had to deal with one of its worst implications: tic douloreux.
“It’s an excruciating pain in the face,” she says, “among the worst pains known to medicine.”
For 14 years, doctors tried alleviating the pain with heroine and cocaine derivatives, she says, until the day she discovered her pain could be reduced with cannabis.
“In a week, I saw eight pain specialists and after each visit, when I returned home, the only thing I could do was go to bed, the pain was so great,” she says. “One Sunday a friend came to visit and told me that he was tired of seeing me in so much pain and gave me a cannabis cigarette. Ten minutes after smoking it, I was up making my bed for the first time in a week, singing along to a song playing on the radio.” All pain had disappeared. The change for her was “miraculous.”
If there is still a lot of prejudice in public opinion, Myrden says, “it’s because people are scared. My generation was raised knowing that drugs are wrong and dangerous.”
According to this past week’s report, however, there are substances like alcohol and tobacco that, although more dangerous, are socially accepted, she explains. “Cannabis instead, has never, on its own, caused a single death.”
So she decided to embark on her battle promoting cannabis use: “As jail guard, I knew I was giving the wrong message by condemning those things I did in private.” Finally, she decided to tell the truth and, since the ’90s, has always defended her position. As a result, many people asked that she apologize (for promoting cannabis use), but she explains, “I never felt I had any reason to apologize.”
Since the time she was one of the 20 with legal access to cannabis, much has changed, but the road is still long:“I’d like that the government doesn’t obligate those suffering from an incurable disease to have to renew their license each year,” she says. “I’d like that the government legalize cannabis use.”