In 2002, a fall from his deck on Pender Island resulted in a serious spinal cord injury that left former premier Mike Harcourt partially paralyzed.

Tomorrow, the former politician and current chair of True Leaf Medicine International will share his story with pharmacy workers at the annual B.C. Pharmacy Association conference in Victoria.

In his keynote speech, Harcourt will discuss cannabis therapy as a patient-first model and speak to his personal experience with using cannabis for chronic pain. He'll also address the role of pharmacists and naturopaths as "complementary elements in the healing chain" as it relates to cannabis.

"A surprising number of people I've run into over the last little while have found it beneficial to use medicinal cannabis for pain management, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and other reasons," Harcourt told the Straight in March, when True Leaf announced it would break ground on a 16-hectare plot of land in the town of Lumby, B.C. (The company hopes to complete construction of a cultivation facility by this summer, with the first crop produced in the fall of 2018.)

Other speakers at the conference will include Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and Andre Picard, national health writer for the Globe and Mail.