Maurice Kevin O'Rourke, a 64-year-old carpenter from Mississauga, ON, with Addison’s disease, was caught with CBD oil and medical cannabis in Dubai and sentenced to life in prison. O'Rourke was prescribed the CBD oil and cannabis, which are legal in Canada, to manage chronic pain from the disease. While travelling from Canada to South Africa, he had a layover in Dubai — where the CBD and cannabis were discovered in his luggage. O’Rourke was detained and taken to prison in Al Awir, United Arab Emirates on July 3, where he was handed down a life sentence. He is appealing the sentence and has a trial scheduled to start on Christmas Day. .WATCH: Automated 'flying taxis' operate between Guangzhou, Dubai.“Our world fell apart. Our daughter Maegan and I are shattered. We're in disbelief,” said his wife Pamela O'Rourke after the ruling, according to the Daily Mail.“Kevin accepts that he shouldn't have travelled while on medication but he doesn't deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison. It was an innocent mistake.”“When he was arrested, local doctors had a hard time getting the medications, which impacted his immune system.”“He contracted an MRSA infection, had two emergency surgeries, spent 40 days in hospital and has subsequently been fighting an infection.”Mrs. O'Rourke said her husband developed an “open wound in prison.”“In three months he went from being strong and healthy to being in a wheelchair. It's been incredibly distressing and life threatening for him,” she said..Gov.-Gen. had steak, cake, and Chardonnay on Dubai flight.Former Canadian Olympian charged in transnational cocaine trafficking and murder scheme .The O’Rourke family has some help from Radha Stirling, crisis manager and CEO of human rights organization Detained in Dubai, but she worries “Kevin will not survive in their care.”“Dubai's prison system will not provide adequate medical care and he will be deprived of necessary medication and care,” Stirling told the Mail.“The suffering of prisoners is not of concern to authorities in the UAE.”“He is too fragile and at risk of infection and life threatening complications as a result of his disease.”.Australian Olympic field hockey player arrested in Paris for allegedly trying to buying cocaine .Stirling called on the Canadian government and Mississauga MP Peter Fonseca to help get O’Rourke home, noting neither country would want a foreign death while in custody.“We have seen rapists and murderers sentenced to just a few years in jail. How can the courts sentence an older man to life in prison for possessing medication for personal use? This is a man who has made a genuine mistake,” said Stirling.“Dubai needs to be sensible here. He was just in transit and did not intentionally put himself in harm's way. He is ill and in need of ongoing and constant medical care.”“From a human rights perspective, we hope the government of Dubai will understand and allow him to come home.”
