Terry Parker, Pot Superman

By Umberto Iorfida
President, N.O.R.M.L. Canada

Kryptonite and a Lead Box

When the Toronto Canada Police Department raided the two bedroom apartment of Terry Parker, they were invading the lair of a Pot Superman. They were prepared though, armed with their kryptonite and their lead box. Their badges were the kryptonite and the Search Warrant was the lead box, containing the charges of cultivation for the purpose of trafficking.

The police smashed down Parker's door with a battering ram, leaving it splintered and broken, which prompted his landlord to serve him an eviction notice the same day. His visiting girlfriend Sharon had heard the strange voices call out "Police, open the door!" and tried to comply, but was not given enough time to unlatch and unlock it. She was thrown back by the brutal entry, and then forced to watch the destruction that ensued before being charged.

What were they Thinking?

Situated high above Toronto, overlooking Lake Ontario from the 22nd floor, it is hard to imagine just where the police thought that the well-known inhabitant might escape to. Acting on a tip that Parker was growing marijuana on the balcony of his apartment, they proceeded to seize a crop of 71 cannabis plants in various stages of growth. Some of the plants were near maturity, while others were still in the seedling stage.

The police were fully aware that in 1987 Parker had been found not guilty of the possession of marijuana, using a defence of medical necessity. Judge Kenneth Langdon of the Brampton Provincial Court of Ontario had ruled in Parker's favour after numerous appearances by Parker on similar charges of possession. So why were the police surprised that he was growing pot?

Parker believed that since he had been found not guilty in 1987, he had the right to possess cannabis in consumer form, or grown on the stalk, and that his victory included the right to access in any form.

Tirelessly Seeking Access

Both before and after winning the right to possess for medical purposes, Terry Parker was in communication with numerous government officials to request and obtain access to a supply of legal medical marijuana. He met closed doors at every turn. His lobbying led to discussions, letters and petitions with officials from the Departments of Health and Justice, The Bureau of Dangerous Drugs, The Office of the Prime Minister, Federal MPs, Senate Committees, The House of Commons, The Canadian Medical Association, and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

Within the Province of Ontario Parker contacted The Ontario Bar Association, The Epilepsy Foundation, The Ontario Medical Association, The College of Physicians and Surgeons, The Ombudsman's Office, the Bureau of Advocacy for the Rights of Disabled Persons, The Ex-psychiatric Patients Association, Local MLAs, and the Addiction Research Foundation. He tirelessly sought access to legal marijuana to fulfill his court victory and administer to his medicinal need.

Throughout the last 15 years you could find Parker walking through the streets of downtown Toronto. From Roncesvale to Yonge, from the waterfront to Bloor St, Parker carried a 60 pound hemp packsack, attached to which was a six foot sign which towered over his head. Legalize Marijuana, Medical Marijuana Now, No More Prisoners Of Weed, and Join NORML Canada were only a few of the slogans that could be seen for a block or more across the busy traffic. You could hear his loud voice, like a town crier bellowing out the need to consider medical marijuana. In time he became a fixture along the sidewalks of this major downtown core, never too tired to answer questions or speak about the cannabis issue to novices and veterans alike.

Psychosurgery, Lobectomies and a Whole Lot of Pills

So just who is Terry Parker? Victim? Crusader? Superman? Criminal?

Parker was injured in a swing accident in 196?, at the age of four years, and was beset by the illness Staticus Epilepticus, the severest of the Grand Mal seizures. Hard life, suffering, abuse and persecution are no strangers to this man.

In 1969 and again in 1972 Parker underwent what he describes as experimental psycho-surgical behaviour modification. This surgery was twice performed with the intent of removing those portions of Parker's brain thought responsible for causing his uncontrollable, life-threatening seizures. The lobectomies left permanent scars as a constant reminder, stretching from the temporal lobe to the back of his head. This was a hideousness he would have to learn to live with.

The surgeries were unsuccessful in producing an end to the severity and the dangers of epilepsy's grasp on his existence. He continued to suffer from powerful convulsions, 20 to 30 minutes in duration, that would make the average person cringe with horror and helplessness.

Pills became a large part of Parker's daily schedule. At first he was prescribed numerous psychotics, later massive amounts of Tegretol and Mysoline. The side effects from these legal and prescribed medications manifested in erratic, self-destructive and potentially abusive or aggressive behaviour. Parker was labeled anti-social and unable to interact well with other children, so education was placed out of reach. This only added to the ignorance of his educators and community regarding the mystery of epilepsy.

Parker was left alone in his own little world. From the years 1968 to 1979 he was shifted from one psychiatric ward to another. He found himself an unwilling prisoner of the Clark Institute of Toronto, the halls of the Addiction Research Foundation, and various hospital wards in the Toronto area.

His ambulance admissions to Emergency rooms throughout the city became commonplace. In one instance he suffered a seizure in an underground subway station, during which he was robbed of his money and guitar, and beaten as a drunk. The police who arrived rousted him for appearing drunk in public and eventually jailed him for protesting and belligerence. This double jeopardy is even more ironic because Parker does not consume alcohol. He learned in his early years that even a minute amount of alcohol would trigger seizures.

Terry Discovers Cannabis

In 1976 Terry Parker discovered cannabis. While registered as an in-patient at one of the Toronto institutes, another patient with epilepsy introduced him to a marijuana joint. Soon after smoking it, Parker became aware that the impending feeling of doom associated with his type of grand mal seizures had subsided. He found himself drawn to this strange feeling of freedom and was elated at the relief. It had been many years since he had felt in control of his body.

He told his doctors of his experience, but found that he was being considered as a perfect candidate for behaviour modification surgery once again. Parker refused to bow to societal attitudes about cannabis and refused to agree to the procedure, which included electric shock stimulation. He still claims to this day that the surgery was experimental and contrary to the 1946 Nuremberg Provisions establishing Codes of Ethics for human experimentation and mutilation.

Spray-On THC

Parker's protesting of the surgery, and his desire to use marijuana for seizure control, led to a 1979 study at the Addiction Research Foundation (ARF) in Toronto. The study was entitled "The Effects of Marijuana on Epileptic Seizures in Man" and was supposed to test Parker's claim that marijuana helped him. He enlisted as a volunteer subject for the nine week study.

Parker claims that fraud was exercised by the ARF, as they had agreed to use marijuana in "smokable form" as part of the study. Actually they only provided him with some form of smoking material that had been sprayed with liquid synthetic THC.

THC is one of the cannabinoids (CBNs) in marijuana, which are substances that stimulate and alter the state of mind. Marijuana also contains cannabidiols (CBDs) which affect and stimulate the central nervous system. It is the CBDs in conjunction with the CBNs that works to suppress seizures and spasmodic body movements.

Since THC is only one of the more than 400 CBNs and CBDs present in marijuana, it was not surprising that it had little effect on Parker's seizures. The ARF spent $100,000 of tax money on the study, and the only result that they came up with was that their work was "inconclusive" about the potential benefits of marijuana for controlling epileptic seizures.

According to Parker, this was the next spear to pierce his rapidly disintegrating life. Parker believes that he was used as a guinea pig, but the substance used was not natural form cannabis sativa, his true medical salvation. It is clear that he felt abused by a system intent on avoiding the real issue of the medical benefits of cannabis by planting disinformation.

Nothing would please Parker more than to bring court action against the ARF and their doctors, as well as some Toronto lawyers who refused to seek compensation for him, despite agreeing with Parker's claim that a new study was warranted using crude form marijuana.

Could it be that the medical profession was afraid of the reality of cannabis and its potential medicinal benefits because of prohibition? Parker believes this with fervor, even insinuating that it is part of the 73 year, continuous, hypocritical mental and social warfare against otherwise law abiding Canadian citizens, especially disabled persons.

Terry Parker Goes N.O.R.M.L.

From 1978, the year Parker was first arrested, to the year 1987, much of his time was spent pleading medicinal need in court and serving time in jail as a criminal. Backed by the 1979 Regina vs Hausser and the 1984 Regina vs Perka, the former regarding Health and Welfare vs Criminal Justice, the latter regarding establishing medical criteria for compassionate use.

Parker became active in N.O.R.M.L. Canada's Toronto chapter office, and in 1980 was elected Assistant Executive National Director with myself, current President of N.O.R.M.L. Canada. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Canada had broken from the original N.O.R.M.L. in the USA, and had taken root and established Canadian corporate status, run and operated entirely by Canadians for Canadians. Members included various prominent political, legal, educational and medical advocates of the decriminalization of cannabis.

During the 70's the Le Dain Commission Inquiry into the non-medical use of drugs in Canada and the Liberal party of Canada had both recommended and promised decriminalization. Then in 1980 Canada reached a new low with the onset of Nancy Reagan's "Just say No" campaign in the US. The passing of section 462.2 of the Criminal Code (banning drug literature) began a cold silence in Canada. N.O.R.M.L. Canada all but disappeared, and so did the open participation by individuals ready to face the issues of cannabis education.

Yet Parker fought on. The successful N.O.R.M.L. Canada/Umberto Iorfida constitutional challenge from 1992 to 1996, ended this vicious infringement on freedom of speech. This decision came 8 years to the date after Terry Parker walked out of a Brampton, Ontario Courthouse a "free man."

Medical Necessity vs Bureaucratic Unwillingness

In 1987 (and again in 1988 in the federal appeal process) Parker was cleared of the charge "possession of cannabis sativa" on the basis of medical necessity. Parker was elated upon hearing Judge Kenneth Langdon's decision, upheld by Federal Judge B. Shapiro in 1988.

For the next seven years Parker continued in his drive to obtain legal marijuana through legal channels, but none were there and none came into being. He also found that most bureaucracies were unwilling to initiate legal channels. His joy of victory was soon dashed, much like his dream of a productive life, free of pain and horror. Any potential dangers of marijuana could not compare to the impairment of the quality of his motor functions by seizures. What could be more humiliating and more cruel than allowing him to suffer publicly, while keeping a natural remedy such as pot away from his reach?

All the doors for legal access to legitimate medicinal marijuana were slammed in his face. Parker even claims that some of the bureaucrats he approached privately advised to just grow his own, so he did. Rather than face yet another excruciating surgery, Parker decided to create his own access to marijuana and started growing his own. That's what brought the local police and the Narcotics Forces to his door.

Drug Enforcement, No Compassion

He is sad today after losing his medication, but does "drug enforcement" work with compassion? Does the Government of Canada and the Ministers of Health recognize Parker's situation as a necessary medical application? The answer is no.

Parker's home was taken apart with extreme force and his medicine was carted away. He was charged with "cultivation of cannabis sativa for the purpose of trafficking." He has approached Lawyer Aaron Harnett, known for representing Grant Krieger of Highwear Hemp in Regina, to defend him and prepare a constitutional challenge, defending his right to use medical marijuana under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. N.O.R.M.L. Canada has agreed to assist once again in the preparations for the case.

If convicted Parker could face upwards of 14 years imprisonment, which is a harsh and unusual punishment, not to mention violation of Parker's rights as a patient in need of medical remedy. The World Health Organization provides for the rights of autonomy of one's body, and the right to seek medical remedy for improved health wherever it is available, exempt from persecution regardless of borders and laws prohibitive of such substances.

Callous Disregard for Human Life

Between the seizures, one man demonstrations, and playing the guitar, Parker launched a campaign bent on exposing illicit experimentation and abuse of disabled persons. Is there a connection? Perhaps a conspiracy? Parker believes that there is. Parker also believes that he was unknowingly fitted with implants (and he has the X-rays) that are electronically controlled. "I'm a walking cyborg" he says laughingly. Is he as delusional as some perceive, is this a protective shield he has built around himself, or is he truly the victim of cruel and inhuman surgical experimentation? There's no doubt that life has dealt Parker an incredibly splintered existence.

Some answers may come out of the upcoming court battle which will start in early to mid 1997. Parker hopes to mount a constitutional challenge in an effort to establish non-criminal provisions to provide himself with his "Herb of Life." For Parker, anything less would be comparable to condemning him to a life to torture and issuing an order of execution, death by "epileptic russian roulette" due to prohibition of marijuana.

This callous disregard for human life is unjustifiable in a free and democratic society. Parker fervently believes in the right to choose, the right to life and the right to health though safe and legal access to a medicine that works for him when nothing else does.

The court case will be expensive, but you can help. The drug war is waged at the cost of all Canadian citizens.

Terry Parker "Pot Superman" believes he can win. A win for one is a win for all.

Go Terry go!

You can Help Terry