OTTAWA CRITICIZED OVER POT RAIDS

OTTAWA -- Ottawa was chastised yesterday for allowing police raids
against growers of medicinal marijuana and for taking too much time to
study requests from sick Canadians who say pot would ease their pain.

The government is moving to offer people with specific illnesses
controlled access to marijuana, but it was criticized by a Federal
Court judge and a B.C. group for creating confusion in the meantime.

Earlier this week, the RCMP raided a production facility in Richmond,
B.C., that supplied marijuana to sick users. Police seized 2,200
plants, 10 boxes of mature bud and an M-16 rifle.

The owner said he had a production permit, while the RCMP said he had
only a research permit. Hilary Black of the B.C. Compassion Club
Society said police should not be seizing marijuana destined for sick
users.

"Health Canada is accepting us as legitimate on one side, and police
are persecuting us as illegal on the other," she said.

Ms. Black said Ottawa should declare an amnesty until it has
implemented a coherent system allowing ill Canadians to use marijuana.
About 220 people have received an exemption to smoke marijuana legally
for medical use, but she said that tens of thousands of others could
benefit from the plant's powers.

The drug is used to alleviate the symptoms of various illnesses,
including muscle spasms, seizures, severe pain, nausea, weight loss
and anorexia.

In an Ottawa courtroom yesterday, Mr. Justice Paul Rouleau condemned a
recent raid on a marijuana user.

Robert Neron suffers from cervical dystonia, which gives him neck
spasms and forces him to wear a brace to support his head. He said
three doctors have approved his use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Mr. Neron told the court that he made his initial application to
Health Canada for a marijuana exemption on Jan. 8 and that police
raided his home the next day.

"I feel like a criminal. . . . A normal person shouldn't have to put
himself in a situation like this," Mr. Neron said in court.

Judge Rouleau said that such raids are unnecessary. "That should not
happen."

He also offered to step in to help speed up exemption applications
with Health Canada.

Judge Rouleau told Mr. Neron and another applicant, Johnny Dupuis,
that while he could not grant them the exemption, they should give
Health Minister Allan Rock a firm 30-day deadline to reply to their
request.

If Mr. Rock fails to do that, Judge Rouleau said, the two men could
come back to court and he would compel the minister to respond.

A Health Canada spokeswoman refused to comment on the court case until
further review.