Clayton Goodwin prepares medicinal marijuana at his apartment in Ottawa, Friday March 20, 2015. A veterans group says auditor general Michael Ferguson's latest report clouds the most important issue when it comes to the increasing use of medical marijuana to treat injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

While the country generally supports the Trudeau government’s plan to legalize marijuana, Canada’s veterans say they are still being stigmatized for using medical marijuana to deal with both physical pain and PTSD.

Veterans advocates from the Veterans Accountability Commission (VAC), a non-profit group, are accusing Canada’s Auditor General Michael Ferguson and the media of perpetuating the stigma attached to medical marijuana.

Clayton Goodwin and David MacKenzie from the VAC as well as Medical Cannabis Patients Alliance Director Laurie MacEachern, held a press conference on Parliament Hill Monday morning to draw attention to an article in the Ottawa Citizen and statements made by Ferguson, which the group feels spread stigma against veterans who rely on medical cannabis.

Goodwin, a former reservist who was injured in the Far North in 2004, uses cannabiniod replacement therapy to control his health issues and Operational Stress Injury from service.

He first drew attention to a Citizen editorial called, “Vet’s Pot Use Problems Suggest Legalization Challenges Ahead”.

“The very title alone is the start of trying to manipulate the public on issues concerning veteran’s health and quality of life,” said Goodwin.

“First, there is no problematic cannabis use. We simply have Veterans finding plant based medicine to be better for themselves which improves the family dynamic,” he said, adding that the article is biased because “no cost-difference analysis has even been looked into, between pharmaceuticals and medicinal marijuana.”

Last week in his spring report, Ferguson said he found that the cost of providing medical marijuana to veterans under a Veterans Affairs program cost ten times more than what was spent last year – more than $4.3 million this fiscal year.

Ferguson also found that the number of ex-soldiers eligible for taxpayer-funded, prescribed pot more than quadrupled to 601 patients, according to figures released by the department.

Goodwin said one of the main issues veterans face is stigma – and the Citizen’s article along with the statement from Ferguson – “is a form of stigmatization on those who chose plant based medicine.”

“We as patients with health conditions have enough to worry about without government actors or journalists creating more stigma as we strive to balance our own health day-to-day and care for our families,” Goodwin said.

“We do not concern ourselves with the price of the pharma and therefore we should not concern ourselves with the price of medical marijuana. We are trying to take control of our lives on a day to day basis and try to better ourselves.”