cannabisnews.com: Kitchener Woman Plans Pot Protest 





Kitchener Woman Plans Pot Protest 
Posted by CN Staff on August 23, 2002 at 08:13:32 PT
Torstar News Service
Source: Toronto Star 
A Kitchener woman allowed to smoke marijuana for health reasons will be in Toronto today to protest against federal government and police actions that deny legal users medicinal pot.Catherine Devries, 44, who suffers spine and bowel conditions, is one of nine Canadians represented by Toronto lawyers who have launched a civil lawsuit against the government in an effort to get access to high-quality pot.
The lawsuit, to be heard Sept. 19 and 20, will demand in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice that Devries and about 200 other Canadians who have legal exemptions to smoke pot be given access to experimental marijuana crops grown by Health Canada in an abandoned mine in Flin Flon, Man.Devries, who will take part in the protest outside the offices of the federal Justice Ministry, said she's "devastated and stunned" by two developments in the ongoing struggle to find a safe supply of cannabis by those given government permission to smoke dope.The first involves comments made in Saint John, N.B., this week by federal Health Minister Anne McLellan who said she's uncomfortable about endorsing marijuana for medical use and wants to see further research done.McLellan said at the Canadian Medical Association meeting she sees contradictions between Ottawa's fight against tobacco use and its decision last year to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.The second is actions by heavily armed police who last week raided the Toronto Compassion Centre, which sold medicinal marijuana to Devries and other medicinal smokers.The centre was shut down after police charged organizers with possession of marijuana, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime. Devries said yesterday McLellan's comments are another sign Ottawa is prepared to delay any action to provide medicinal marijuana.Devries said the Toronto Compassion Centre was one of the few safe places medicinal users could get marijuana. Now it's closed, she and others will now, once again, have to risk buying pot from street dealers.Last year, former health minister Allan Rock approved limited use of pot and gave doctors power to prescribe cannabis. But doctors resisted in part because they don't know proper dosages and were warned by insurers not to sign medical declarations for those seeking medicinal marijuana.Devries said yesterday Rock and his government are only interested in creating the appearance they want to be compassionate and change laws to help sick Canadians get access to cannabis.The new regulations were the government's response to a court ruling that Canada's pot laws are unconstitutional because they recognize marijuana has medicinal uses but do nothing to provide a legal supply route.Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)Published: August 23, 2001Copyright: 2002 The Toronto Star Contact: lettertoed thestar.com Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Related Articles & Web Sites:Toronto Compassion Centre http://www.torontocompassioncentre.org/Reefer Sadness - Now Magazinehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13845.shtmlRaid Hurt The Sick: Pot Activisthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13752.shtml`Medicine' Seized in Bust of Pot Club http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13744.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on August 23, 2002 at 09:36:33 PT:
The real tipoff that this was a DEA-run job
was the way the cops barged in with guns drawn. The local police knew that they were facing only sick people and their caretakers...but this kind of behavior is more indicative of the DEA.I'd have wanted a good hard look at those badges and the uniforms...and paid close attention to their grammar. In Vancouver a few years back, US Naval Intel types were 'disguised' as locals and tried to buy weed in Marc Emery's old store. Think that some American DEA agents wouldn't try that stunt, with even greater audacity? By masquerading as Canadian LEOs? I wouldn't put it past any of them.
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