cannabisnews.com: Police Seize Marijuana En Route to Ill Woman 





Police Seize Marijuana En Route to Ill Woman 
Posted by FoM on April 20, 2000 at 23:32:54 PT
Canadian Press - Two Articles
Source: Excite Canada
Police confiscated marijuana sent Thursday to a seriously ill woman who is one of 34 Canadians authorized to use the drug to soothe their pain. Police said they weren't aware of the woman's Health Canada exemption when officers seized the drug, and said she won't be charged. 
But they won't return the drug because it would be considered trafficking. Catherine Devries, who has a painful back condition caused by a degenerative nerve disorder, said she was in her bathroom Thursday morning when two officers showed up at her door. "Talk about the heart pounding," said Devries, of Kitchener, Ont. "I thought maybe someone I know had had an accident." Instead, the officers told her they had confiscated 21 grams of marijuana mailed to her from Vancouver. Devries, who has suffered from the condition for 20 years, said she realized at once they were not aware of the exemption that protects her from prosecution for possession of marijuana. Officers left with her exemption certificate and pot in hand, leaving Devries "shaky" and upset because she had been hoping to use the marijuana to alleviate her pain as soon as it arrived. Devries was taken by friends to a hospital emergency room late Thursday afternoon. The federal government set up the exemption system last year, but has yet to set up a source of marijuana for those licensed to use it, often forcing them to buy drugs illegally. Staff Sgt. Gary Askin said that despite Devries' right to use marijuana, the force cannot return it to her. "We are in a position where the federal government has arranged this (system) but provided no vehicle for us to give her the drugs," Askin said. Last week, Jim Wakeford, the first in Canada to be granted permission to smoke pot for medicinal purposes, went to court to seek a safe supply of marijuana. Wakeford, a Toronto man with full-blown AIDS, also asked that his dealers be exempted from drug trafficking and possession laws. Justice Blenus Wright has not yet ruled on the request. (Toronto Star)Waterloo, Ont. (CP) -Published: April 20, 2000Copyright © 2000 Excite Canada Inc. CannabisNews Articles On Health Canada:http://google.com/search?lc=&num=10&q=cannabisnews+Health+Canada+site:cannabisnews.comMarijuana Crusader Grant Krieger Fined for Breaching Probation:Marijuana crusader Grant Krieger pleaded guilty to two breach of probation charges in provincial court Thursday. Krieger originally pleaded not guilty when he was arrested last June. At the time he claimed he couldn't make the monthly court ordered meetings with his probation officer because he didn't have enough money for the bus. But Crown prosecutor Jolaine Antonio explained that was not the case - in fact Krieger never had any intention of reporting as ordered. Last January, he was given an 18-month suspended sentence for a marijuana trafficking conviction in Regina, and as part of his release he was ordered to report to probation monthly. "He believes he is a political prisoner of Canadian society," Antonio told the court. "The accused told his probation officer that he didn't intend to report and he would blatantly use marijuana ... he was defiant in his resolve to break the law." She requested that Judge Douglas McDonald send Krieger to jail for his defiance of his probation order. Krieger's lawyer, Adriano Iovinelli, asked that his client only receive a fine. He added the 46-year-old was using marijuana to help battle the pain from multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the nervous system that causes tremors, speech defects and paralysis. When asked if Krieger had attended his probation since being charged, Iovinelli said no, and that his client didn't believe it was necessary. "I agree with a fine - he has a political stand he wants to put forward," ruled McDonald. He ordered Krieger to pay $825 in fines by January 2001. (Calgary Herald)Calgary (CP) Published: April 20, 2000Copyright © 2000 Excite Canada Inc. CannabisNews Articles On Grant Krieger:http://google.com/search?lc=&num=10&q=cannabisnews+Krieger+site:cannabisnews.com
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Comment #1 posted by mungojelly on April 21, 2000 at 07:36:01 PT:
officers stole her pot
"Officers left with her exemption certificate and pot in hand" -- Oh, I'm sorry, you have the legal right to possess this substance? All we'll do is confiscate it, then. Come on now. How would you feel if I confiscated some of the things you legally possess, officer? Are we really supposed to buy this? What would happen if the cops came in & took morphine away from someone with a legal prescription -- would they be "unable" to return it? I bet they'd have it back in no time, with red faces. Every time we say that we have every moral right to smoke pot, they say "it's not our fault, we don't write the laws, we just enforce them." Well, do they? 
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