HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-12-14, Page 1818 News Record • Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Darryl Coote Postmedia Network
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.
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Medpot user says
she was wrongfully
charged with DUI
Darryl Coote
Postmedia Network
Linda Birks was only a handful of kil-
ometers 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.
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,
specifically 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 apartment near Goderich in late
October.
"What I have to do is, basically, if I'm
not going anywhere is have a few puffs off
and on all day long so this way it main-
tains 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
marijuana 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.
Dr. Danial Schecter, medical director
and co-founder of the Cannabinoid Med-
ical Clinic in Toronto and the doctor who
prescribed medical cannabis for Birks,
confirmed that this is what he tells his
patients.
"We tell our patients that it is not rec-
ommended to drive for at least four hours
after inhaling cannabis and for eight
hours if they feel 'euphoria' or have
ingested (instead of inhaled) cannabis,"
he wrote to The Signal Star in an email.
Birks says that the police officer built a
case against her once she told him that
she was a medical marijuana user.
"As soon as he found out I had a pre-
scription for medical marijuana he
pricked my finger right then and there,"
she said.
CONTINUED > PAGE 19
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