Photo: Contributed

Tara Ringer and "Phoenix tears"

A Penticton woman suffering from a brain tumour is dreading the possible loss of local marijuana dispensaries, following RCMP sabre rattling last week.

After struggling to get a diagnosis for years, Tara Ringer was diagnosed with a meningioma tumour in 2015, and has since faced an entirely new struggle to find treatment.

Symptoms for Ringer include pressure in the head, migraines, hand trembling, loss of concentration, memory and more that has left her unable to work for the past four years.

Her conventional treatment options are gamma-knife radiation, or brain surgery, “I did radiation.… Oh God, did I get sick,” she said, continuing that she’s terrified at the thought of surgery.

Ringer says the tumour is growing very slowly, so doctors have recommended she take no action, and try to live her life as best she can.

A few weeks ago, Ringer was introduced to CBD cannabis oil, or phoenix tears, as a tool to treat the symptoms and “so far, it's night and day.”

Okanagan Cannabinoid Therapy sponsored Ringer and provided her with two weeks worth of medication, which would normally cost $60 a day.

But with the local RCMP threatening the operators of local dispensaries with arrest, Ringer is devastated at the aspect of losing access to her medicine.

“I have no options, just going backwards. Soon as I go off the phoenix tears my symptoms will probably come back,” she said, adding that she has a few days of supply left. “It’s not all about, ‘Oh people are going to get high and stupid.’ There is real reasons why people are turning to that.”

“All the doctors have ever done is given me prescription for this painkiller, prescription for this medication.… I was so loaded up on medication, I was getting side effects from the medications,” she added.

Ringer has tried crowdfunding, but, so far, she says the local dispensary has been the only one to step up and help her.

Okanagan Cannabinoid Therapy has a policy of not speaking to the media, but confirmed they know Ringer well. The branch also sponsors a young epileptic girl in Summerland in a similar fashion.

Should the remaining two dispensaries close in response to RCMP pressure, like Herbal Green Apothecary did on Wednesday, Ringer would have to travel out of town to buy the medication

Going the official route through Health Canada has proven to be hard too, as Ringer has no way to pay for the cannabis oil.

“All I want to do, is get my memory back and my body function back enough to go back to work. I don’t want to be on disability, but I don’t have any options,” she said.

Right now it's not clear if the two remaining dispensaries in Penticton will bow to RCMP pressure and close. Police in West Kelowna issued similar threats to dispensaries there, but have not followed through on them.

Both Okanagan Cannabinoid Therapy and Green Essence were granted temporary use permits from the City of Penticton in December, following a lengthy process.

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