This weekend the first Medical Marijuana and Hemp Expo is being held in Toronto, Canada. Touted as the first of its kind in Canada, the expo resembles the ones we have here in the United States, with speakers, booths, and a 4,600 square foot “Vapor Room,” where Health Canada patients could use to medicate.

“It’s good to talk to people who are in the same condition . . . few people understand that we need marijuana,” said Ben Fudge, who lives in Oshawa, Ont., as he took a deep puff from what looks likes a gigantic cellophane balloon in the ‘‘Vapor Room.’’

He broke his hip and femur as a child when a truck ran over him. The pain is still acute, he said, but “at least I don’t have to take painkillers that made me lazy. I’ve lost 45 pounds and I’m happier.”

There were about two dozen people in the “Vapor Room’’ — some were standing by vaporizers, inhaling marijuana, which they’d supplied themselves, while others sat quietly in a corner talking.

Have you ever noticed that anti-medical marijuana advocates like to paint people who medicate with cannabis as stoners who just want to get high; but when you come across these patients in news stories, they are always the victim of some horrific accident – like getting ran over by a truck – or some awful disease? It makes you wonder where our opponents are finding these so-called “fake” patients.

Expos like this one can only further our cause by raising awareness of medical marijuana patients. Every city should have an annual one, and hopefully someday they will.

- Joe Klare