2 THE VOICE, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2013 EDITOR ANGIE HOLUBOWICH Cws Medical marijuana users get burned An “administrative er- ror” committed by Health Canada has left Canadi- ans’ privacy violated By AMY JONES Medical marijuana users feel violat- ed and exposed after Health Canada sent out 40,000 letters to their homes last week, outing them as patients of the Marihuana Medical Access Pro- gram. Previous letters from the MMAP were always discreet and private, la- beled only as being from Health Cana- da. Deputy Minister George Da Pont issued an apology on the Health Cana- da website following the incident, call- ing the matter an “administrative er- ror.” However, that apology has done little for medicinal marijuana users who are upset that the federal govern- ment has exposed their personal medi- cal information to postal workers and neighbours and anyone else who saw the envelopes. Dani is one of the 40,000 Canadians who received a letter from the MMAP to her home last week and did not want her identity exposed by giving her last name. “We all deserve privacy and confi- dentiality,” said Dani. “Tf you were on Prozac or OxyContin, would you want the rest of the world to know?” Dani said medicinal marijuana users don’t want their identities revealed be- cause of all the conflicting opinions about medicinal cannabis use. “Now all of a sudden your mail man, your concierge, everybody in your building and whoever passed this enve- lope around knows that maybe you have medicinal cannabis in your home and they have your home address.” Sensible BC founder Dana Larsen says that besides privacy, security is also a big concern for people. “These are all people that are pro- ducing a crop that is quite valuable so identifying their personal medical situ- ation potentially puts then at risk for being robbed by someone who thinks they’ve got a lot of pot in their house,” said Larsen. Dani said, “It’s really hard for people to have trust in the government when they’re just advertising who’s getting prescriptions.” “T don’t know how Health Canada will redeem themselves for this one.” AMY JONES photo Aman walks past the Vancouver Pain Management Society at 2137 Commercial Dr. in Vancouver. Some veterans feel the New Veterans Charter doesn’t do enough to help By TYLER HOOPER ate one night in 2005 Kevin Berry awoke to find himself choking his girlfriend. Berry was having a night ter- ror - a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, triggered by several incidents in Afghanistan, including an instance in which a child carrying a bomb almost wiped out members of his patrol. “That was an idea that things aren’t right. It’s not normal for people to en- gage in unarmed combat when they sleep with their spouse,” Berry said. Berry was a machine gunner in the 3rd Battalion of The Royal Canadian Regiment. Upon returning home from Afghan- istan in 2004, he became dependent on alcohol to cope with anxiety, flash- backs and nightmares, he said. In 2010 — almost six years since he had been in Afghanistan —- Berry was diagnosed with PTSD. Since then he has become an advo- cate for veterans, often speaking out against the federal government’s New Veterans Charter, which replaced cer- tain Pension Act provisions. The charter replaced the old pen- sion system with a one-time lump-sum payment with an individual maximum of $276,000. However, some veterans claim the charter isn’t providing soldiers the support they need. “The worst-case scenario is if you got your arms and legs blown off, and your lower jaw, eyes, ears, nose, any internal organs you can survive with- out, your package down below - all of it - gone,” said Aaron Bedard, a friend of Berry’s and member of the Equitas Society, a support group for veterans. “Youre still only going to get the same amount as with the guy with two [missing] legs.” Bedard suffered a traumatic brain injury after his engineering recon- naissance unit drove over an anti-tank mine outside Kandahar in 2006, which has left him struggling with PTSD. “When [the government] sends it to you, they send you a letter saying, ‘Here’s your big cheque and invest it wisely,” adding that many fellow vet- erans lost their payment after invest- ing in the housing market during the crash of the late 2000s. Both Berry and Bedard are part of a lawsuit against the federal govern- ment that claims the New Veterans Charter’s change in compensation vio- lates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Veterans Affairs Cana- da would not comment on the issue directly. TYLER HOOPER photo Kevin Berry salutes at the Remembrance Day ceremony in Blue Mountain Park, Coquitlam. PTSD : asilent battle Common Signs of PTSD Re-experience a traumatic event Nightmares Flashbacks Social withdrawal Extreme guilt Alcohol dependency nO OF Ff @ NO = Drug dependency 8 Dizziness 9 Chest pain Source: Canadian Mental Health Association www.cmha.ca Marpole homeless left in the cold The closure of Marpole emergency shelter leaves South Vancouver without cold weather refuges for homeless people By NIALL SHANNON weather predictably turns colder, those in search of shelter will find no such help in South Vancouver. While the emergency-weather resi- dences were available to those in need last year, homeless people attempting to come in from the cold will be forced to make their way into crowded hous- ing shelters downtown or to Kitsilano. The sole provider of the extreme weather shelters last year was the Marpole Place Neighbourhood House, which was recently forced to close down the shelter. “We had the extreme weather shel- ter for two years,” said Cindy McMil- lan, manager of the Marpole Place Neighbourhood House. “Because the numbers were so small, BC Housing decided not to fund it this year,” she said. According to McMillan, the emer- gency shelter saw between three and four people, which are low figures that do not represent OPINION A: the winter approaches and the the entire need for shelter in the South Vancouver area. CINDY MCMILLAN Many are un- aware of the tem- porary _ shelters, r4 4 and others are em- barrassed to seek aid, according to P eople McMillan. seeking “There’s just not . the outreach [in Shelter will Marpole],” said fave to McMillan. “We are . looking to get Read into some money for shelters in outreach, but it’s hard to come by. Kitsilano “People seeking or maybe shelter will have to the Uni head into shelters e unton in Kitsilano or Gospel maybe the Union * ot Gospel Mission Mission downtown, which downtown, many of them ° won't if they which wouldn’t even many of come here.” ’ McMillan — said them wont the decision to not if they fund the shelter wouldn’t was “disappoint- ing” but ultimately @ven come understood BC here Housing’s point of view. The Marpole Place Neighbourhood House is still able to help those seek- ing more permanent help with hous- ing, but remains the only shelter in South Vancouver. The closing of the temporary shel- ter comes with news that the City of Vancouver has halved the number of Homeless Emergency Action Team shelters or HEAT, bringing the total of two to aid against the extreme weath- er. As shelters become more and more crowded, temporary shelters may see more demand. With the majority of homeless peo- ple condensed into the downtown core, the demand for shelters in other neighbourhoods is difficult to assess and address. BC Housing was unavailable for comment by deadline.