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26 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, November 30, 2016
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Darryl Coote/Editor
Linda Birks, 58, pictured here in her Port Albert apartment, says her life has been turned upside down since her arrest three months
ago for driving under the influence of marijuana. She says she didn't take her medicine that August day, but now facing a criminal
conviction, she's fighting the charge.
Medpot user says she was
wrongfully charged with DUI
Darryl Coote
Linda Birks was only a
handful of kilometers away
from her new home in Port
Albert when she became
caught in a thunderstorm
and drove her car off the
road, down a ditch and into
a hydro pole.
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The trip was supposed to
have been the beginning of a
new start, she said.
Her plan that night of Aug.
17 was to drive her car,
loaded with most of her
belongings, the two hours to
her new apartment, unload
and then head back to
Guelph to care for her 10 cats
and four ferrets that were
waiting for her.
Instead, the 58 -year-old
would spend the night in a
jail cell at the Walkerton OPP
detachment, charged with
driving a motor vehicle while
impaired by a drug, specifi-
cally marijuana.
However, she claims she
never took the drug that day
and says she was targeted
because she is a medical
marijuana user.
For over a year Birks has
been taking one gram of
medical marijuana daily for
chronic pain caused by
degenerating disks in her
back, among other issues,
she told The Signal Star in an
interview from her apart-
ment near Goderich in late
October.
"What I have to do is, basi-
cally, if I'm not going any-
where is have a few puffs off
and on all day long so this
way it maintains a certain
level in my blood stream and
that is what gives you the
long-term benefits," she said.
However, on the day of her
arrest she says she had not
taken her prescribed mari-
juana knowing that she'd
have to drive later that
evening.
"I was busy packing and
sorting things and I loaded
up the vehicle and I decided
to drive up around six
o'clock; this way I could beat
the rush hour traffic and it
would be nice and quiet
when I came back because it
was close to a four-hour trip,"
she said.
She said her doctor had
told her when he prescribed
her the medicine that if she
plans to drive not to vape
marijuana a minimum of
four hours before she gets
behind the wheel, and this is
a rule she said she adheres to.
CONTINUED > PAGE 27