The Assholes Refused To Accept My Renewal

This Nasty Exchange of Letters Followed

120910- E-Mail to Director Lessard re Rejection.

To: Marihuana Medical Access Program

Cc: Leona Aglukkaq Minister of Health Aglukkaq.L@parl.gc.ca

Glenda Yeates, Deputy Minister     Glenda_Yeates@hc-sc.gc.ca

Subject: Did you change the rules or are you just sticking it to me?

 Dear Director Lessard: Are you still Director there?

 Ref: Renewal of Authorization AP-BLB-03-B07511641-42-11-B

 Today my application for renewal of the above Authorization was returned as incomplete and advising a Form A must accompany the Form R and Form E1 I submitted.

This is a perfect example of why everyone who tries to contact the MMAD eventually gets disgusted and gives up trying to get any answers. I just phoned the toll free number for MMAD and asked if you were still the Director. I was advised that was confidential and that I would have to be referred to someone who would call me back. Horseshit. I’m not going to hang around waiting for a call that will in all probability never come. That’s standard practice for calls re any problems with the service.

We already went through this Form A Requirement on my first renewal; unless you can advise of some rule change, a Form A must be provided for a renewal only if there has been some change in the information and condition previously provided. There have been none with regard to the Authorization referenced above for which I am requesting renewal. 

There was no damned reason for the refusal. Why was my application returned?

I very much would appreciate a rapid response. My license is now expired and I need a renewal to buy pot from you guys since you scared my designated grower into quitting.

 If I am correct and no Form A is required then please advise how to return my application to you on a no charge basis. I’ve already wasted $15 sending it to you once and I don’t relish spending another $15 as a result of an error by you lot.

 If I am in error and a Form A is required please advise so I can start finding a street source. I will not spend another $20 for another MD signature and another $15 return mail. The license isn’t worth that much without a legal source and unfortunately you’re the only legal source now available to me now.

 In anticipation of your response

Regards:

Blaine Barrett

TheSmeeGoanGuy

120911- Reply from Client Services

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 5:55 AM, MMAP-PAMM <MMAP-PAMM@hc-sc.gc.ca> wrote:

Dear Mr. Barrett,

I am writing to inform you that the Marihuana Medical Access Program (Program) has received your request for information related to your file, however, we are unable to proceed with a reply as there is insufficient information provided in your email to ensure we are communicating with the correct client. In order to ensure the protection of personal information submitted to the MMAP we require some additional information.  
If you desire a written response please reply with the following information:

1.        Your full name (First, last and middle)
2.        Your mailing address
3.        Your telephone number
4.        Your date of birth
Once the requested information is received, a program officer will review your file and respond accordingly.
Regards,

Client Services
Bureau of Medical Cannabis
Health Canada

120912- Reply to Client Services

Well, Well, Well!

Good morning Client Services:  

Better yet! Scream that like “Good Morning, Vietnam!”

Its wartime

This is exactly the sort of unnecessary bullshit delay tactic that that has completely destroyed any belief I had that the MMAD might ever get straightened out.

Why are you subordinates answering my e-mail?

I addressed it to Director Lessard and unless he’s been replaced as Director this is between the two of us (or his replacement). We are familiar adversaries from the jerking around I got last year when my early request for renewal of my licence was denied. That bureaucratic hair splitting cost me another 3 months wait for renewal. It also resulted in a delay in the renewal of my Designated Grower Application and buggered up that relationship. I now have no legal supply of pot.

As far as your reply goes: all the information you requested was already in your files if you had taken the trouble to punch in the Authorization Number provided in the introduction to my e-mail i.e.

Ref: Renewal of Authorization AP-BLB-03-B07511641-42-11-B

   You requested

If you desire a written response please reply with the following information:

1.        Your full name (First, last and middle)
2.        Your mailing address
3.        Your telephone number
4.        Your date of birth

Once the requested information is received, a program officer will review your file and respond accordingly.

Re 1-4:

Blaine LeRoy Barrett aka The Smee Goan Guy

255, XXXXX-149St.

Surrey, BC  V3R 3Z8

604-585-XXXX

March 1, 1942

You will do as you will do. Review to another flunky is just more delay.

I have the rejection sheet showing that Form R and Form E1 are OK and the lack of a Form A is cited as the reason for rejection.

All I want is an answer to two simple questions:

Is a Form A is required to accompany a Form R, where can I find confirmation?

I don’t give a damn who responds but I want an answer to that question and I don’t want to two weeks from now 

If there is no such requirement please advise instructions as to how to get the Application back to you without another $15 mail charge. It’s your screw up and I’m not going to pay for its correction.

Regards

Blaine Barrett 

The Smee Goan Guy

120917- Reply from Client Services

Dear Mr. Barrett,

We are writing in response to your emails of September 10, 2012, and September 12, 2012, regarding your application to renew your authorization to possess marihuana for medical purposes.

Form A “Application for Authorization to Possess Marihuana for Medical Purposes”, is required when an authorization to possess and/or a licence to produce is renewed and there are changes to personal information (i.e., address, name) or changes to production/supply source (i.e., source of supply, production location, delivery options).

Since you would like to renew your authorization to possess with a change to your source of supply, a complete Form A, indicating your new source of supply is required along with Form R “Renewal” and Form E1 “Application to Obtain Dried Marihuana”.

It is Health Canada’s policy to return all incomplete applications to applicants along with instructions for resubmission. Applicants are responsible for covering the costs associated with sending mail.

Furthermore, it is the policy of the Marihuana Medical Access Program (Program) to confirm the identity of clients who are seeking information pertaining to their files via telephone and email.

Please note that our service standard for responding to incoming correspondence is 5 business days.

Finally, please note that the Director of the Program is now Mr. Louis Proulx; however, all Program clients seeking information about their applications and files must contact the Program directly.

Regards,

Client Services
Bureau of Medical Cannabis
Health Canada

120918- Abandon the License.

Dear Client Services

Cc: Director Louis Proulx

Ref: Renewal of Authorization AP-BLB-03-B07511641-42-11-B

Thank you for advising me that Mr. Lessard has abandoned ship. Please extend my condolences re his PTSD. It happens when you’re the Front man for an ineffective operation subject to the misdirection of an incompetent Administration.

Regards to you Mr. Proulx:

Please note that I have no intention of changing my target for complaint. All my future communications to the MMAP director will be to your attention, copied to the Minister and Deputy Minister and if I so choose published in my Blog “Medical Marijuana with TheSmeeGoanGuy. The only problem in dealing with Client Services is no-one will accept responsibility for anything. All staff are anonymous voices or unidentified respondents. In short I’m simply telling the bosses what you lot are doing to all outside contacts requesting help. More of that secrecy crap.

To Client Services:

I will not resubmit my Application. I am not going to fork over more money for more bureaucratic bullshit and delay. The goddamn license at this point is only useful to buy pot from YOU alone. My designated grower is gone and now you want me to spend another $20 for another Physician signature and $15 Expresspost. I would also have to spend another $15 for Photographs even though they are not required because you already have them on file. With MMAD’s superficial slapdash handling of details I fear that as soon as some clerk opens the Application and notes that photographs are missing from my Form A, the whole pack will be rejected as incomplete and returned to me again for another delay. It’s a conditioned reflex. For Christ’s sake: to think that someone in your operation would check files for missing information is stupid.

My first renewal was rejected because of a change of Doctor: Specialist to GP.

As a classic example, last year my application was returned to me for the stupid reason that some jerk in your office would not accept my Doctor’s signature as valid. Fools! You assholes cost me more money for what should have been solved with a 2 minute phone call to my doctor, but something as efficient as that would never occur to you jerks. That cost $30 I couldn’t afford.

Mickey Mouse attention to Mickey Mouse details: that characterizes the whole MMAD operation. You state that your standard response time for information is 5 days. That is crap coming from an outfit that is supposed to have a standard processing time for applications in weeks that in reality actually takes months. Maybe it will dawn on you that your work load would decrease and postage decrease if only you used common sense. Every time you reject an application for a minor non-consequential error or omission you simply get it back again for a second load of work.

I don’t need any more aggravation. Considering the actual utility a License renewal would be: you can forget it. I already have a card and even expired it’s all I need. If I show it to a Cop, it establishes my need for medication and reduces the probability of anything but a civil discussion of how fucked up Medical Marijuana has become.

I hope I never have to communicate with you again but just to keep you informed of what trouble you’ve caused, I’ve signed you up as a follower. Enjoy my blog; Every Post in your Mail automatically.

I love e-mail. The world at my fingertips with Send.

Blaine Barrett

TheSmeeGoanGuy