COMPASSION CLUB EYED FOR CHILLIWACK

A marijuana "compassion club" to dispense the drug at deep discount prices
to medically-authorized patients may be coming to Chilliwack. The B.C.
Marijuana Party plans on setting up a "compassion network" of five clubs
around the province in September and another four in December, including
one in Chilliwack.

"A lot of people who are in need of medical marijuana are in wheelchairs,
disabled or suffering certain levels of poverty," says party president Marc
Emery in a news release.

"We will be dispensing medical marijuana to those who have the right form
signed by their doctor," says Norm Siefken, a B.C. Marijuana Party member
who ran for election in Chilliwack-Sumas.

Mr. Siefken was vague about where the marijuana will come from, but says it
will be clean, high grade and tested for molds and contaminants. "It won't
be free," he says, "but definitely less than street prices." The party's
news release says patients will be able to get pot for prices starting at
$7 a gram, but it could go lower "if local growers can be found."

Mr. Siefken says the party is not expecting trouble from law enforcement
authorities, but has retained high profile lawyer John Conroy, known for
his defence work in marijuana cases. "It's my understanding," Mr. Siefken
says, "as long as the patient has a letter or prescription from a doctor
(to obtain the marijuana) then no laws are being broken."

He says Chilliwack was chosen as a club site because there are several
marijuana activists living here and it is a "natural" location to serve the
Fraser Valley. "I get several calls a week looking for medical marijuana,"
Mr. Siefken says, but the nearest source is a compassion club in Vancouver,
which now has 1,400 members and has put a freeze on new memberships.

Two party members who live in Chilliwack, but ran as candidates in other
valley ridings, will run the Chilliwack club. Mr. Siefken says he is also
looking for qualified professionals in the medical field to sit on the
club's board of directors.