OUTLAW COMPASSION

On the day before opening its new location in the Church-Wellesley
village, the staff of the Toronto Compassion Centre (TCC) take a
break from last-minute renovation work. The air smells like paint and
pot as project coordinator Tracy Curley rolls a joint for membership
coordinator Chad Cooke. It seems, to this reporter, a little early in
the day to spark up a blunt but, "We're medicating," explains manager
Willow Bauer.

TCC's mission is to help people struggling with illness to access
medical marijuana. The staffers here are members themselves.

"We're sick people helping sick people," says Bauer, a small slim
woman with short dark hair and funky glasses.

For Curley, whose red hair matches her name, weed helps her live with
diabetic neuropathy.

"Sometimes I can't feel my feet," she says. But by using pot, "I
function better now in my 30s than I ever did when I was younger."

Dominic Cramer is the entrepreneur behind TCC. The staff treat him
with reverence. Dubbed "the mayor of Yongesterdam," he is the founder
and owner of the Toronto Hemp Company on Yonge St. Since his start in
1994 Cramer has spun his hemp business off into a small network of
shops and cafes with TCC, he says, rising out of an obvious need.

"I had old ladies call up, saying pot saved their sons. He's got
leukemia, AIDS, whatever, and they've seen these incredible benefits.
'Where do I get some?'"

He calls TCC's move to the gay village "a homecoming."

"The Toronto Hemp Company has been a sponsor of Dirty Bingo for 16
years," says host Shirley, whose dirty bingo has been a village
staple for years. "They donate a bong every week."

TCC also had a float in the Pride parade with its own spin on the rainbow flag.

"Green was legalization, red was regulation, yellow was education,
orange was medication, purple was pride and blue was compassion,"
says Curley. "That's what we strive for."

But is it just savvy public relations by a smart businessman? Is it
merely fancy window dressing for a drug den?

Cooke says 42 percent of TCC members are people living with HIV/AIDS.
Curley estimates that as many as a third of the members are gay men.

"From a quality of life point of view anything that will help people
with HIV manage their medications better and lead quality lives is a
very good thing and it's something that ACT has always supported,"
says John Maxwell, director of special projects at the AIDS Committee
of Toronto.

But the government doesn't see it quite that way.

Paul Spendlove, media relations officer for Health Canada, says no
matter what benefits they may provide to the sick, "Compassion clubs
are unregulated and have always operated outside Canadian laws. These
clubs have no legal authority to provide access or to produce and
distribute marijuana."

The legal status of marijuana in Canada seems as hazy as a room full
of smoke. Two federal commissions, in 1972 and 2002, recommended
outright legalization of marijuana arguing that black-market crime
from prohibition is a greater threat to Canadians than the drug. The
last Liberal government planned to decriminalize possession of small
amounts for personal use but since the Liberals were voted out no one
in Ottawa is leaping to make a change.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said, "A Conservative government
will not reintroduce the Liberal plan to decriminalize the possession
of marijuana." Last fall federal Health Minister Tony Clement
unveiled a $64-million antidrug strategy and declared, "The party's over."

Such tough-on-crime posturing angers drug prevention and treatment
advocates like Maxwell. "Where is the money for treatment?" he asks.
"It's all going into law enforcement."

With government unwilling to budge, it has fallen to the courts to
prod policy. In the summer of 2000 Ontario Court of Appeal Justice
Marc Rosenberg ruled that marijuana possession laws violate the
rights of sick people who need medical marijuana.

Ottawa responded by creating the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations
(MMAR) - essentially growing and selling pot itself. Those who, with
physician support, demonstrate a need for weed are licensed to access
the government's stash.

"It was either that or lose the entire prohibition law," says Cramer.

But Cooke says TCC is necessary because the government system doesn't work.

"It's like they set it up to fail, especially considering that
they've been court-ordered.... They do it reluctantly and badly."

In January federal deputy judge Barry Strayer agreed, noting that a
mere 2,432 people held a licence for government marijuana. It's
important, he ruled, "for qualified medical users to have reasonable access."

"The bottom line is that the government should not be in our bedrooms
and it should not be making our healthcare decisions for us," says
Cramer. "People should be free to use whatever medicines they and
their doctors feel will help them."

As a group the TCC staff make for very charming criminals.

Each workday, says Curley, "I have to ask myself if I'm prepared to
be arrested today."

It's worse than that, says Bauer. "Every single day you walk in, you
realize that not only do you have to worry about law enforcement
possibly coming in and shutting us down but also people on the street
who don't care that we're ill and could come in and hurt us."

Bauer's fear comes from experience.

On Dec 20, 2001 five masked thugs burst into a former TCC location
near St Clair and Bathurst and brutally beat and robbed members and staff.

"It was not a nice situation," remembers Cooke. "People were tied up.
We learned a valuable lesson that day."

The police responded but wound up seizing what marijuana and money
the attackers didn't get. The police raided the place again a few months later.

The attack and subsequent police raids is why the staff want to keep
the precise village location of TCC a secret. Xtra has agreed not to
publish the address or outside photos but the place is not hard to
find for anyone determined to do so.

New members go through an online or telephone application process
before they learn the location. On entering, TCC visitors pass under
video cameras and through three sets of locked doors.

Cooke calls the village "the promised land. This is one community we
know will accept us."

"I believe that we're more protected in this area than we've been in
all three locations," says Bauer. "I know that if we were arrested,
many of our members would be down here with picket signs."

But if TCC and its members could be magnets for crime and police,
like Toronto's gay bathhouses once were, what do Church St residents
have to say about the new neighbours?

"I have no problem with a compassion centre opening by my house,"
says one. "It's certainly better than having a grow-op or needle
exchange centre next door."

David Wootton, coordinator for the Church-Wellesley Village Business
Improvement Area says, "They're completely welcome."

Paul Bourassa has been a TCC member for about seven years and says
the mixture of HIV meds and chronic pain was making him sick before
his partner got him on marijuana.

"I ate edibles, smoked pot, and it gave me an appetite and kept me
calm," he says. "I could have a normal day and do my normal work."

He's lucky, however, that his doctor agreed. The MMAR rules are
strict and many doctors won't bother.

"Essentially it's illegal, right?" says Maxwell. "I'd guess there are
a number of physicians who work with large populations of people with
HIV who won't say anything publicly to support the use of medical
marijuana but recognize that if it helps their patients' adherence to
taking HIV meds, obviously say, 'Go ahead and do it.'"

Catherine Clarke, senior communications coordinator at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, says "doctors are expected to use
their best judgment," pointing out that the college's official policy
is, "Physicians are not obligated to complete a medical declaration
under the MMAR. Physicians who choose to do so are advised to proceed
with caution."

Spendlove says "current scientific evidence does not establish the
safety and efficacy of cannabis."

"Studies," scoffs Curley. "Marijuana has been around for thousands of years."

"We've had MS patients come in here in wheelchairs; six months down
the line I see them walking without a cane," says Bauer. "It's become
manageable."

Ultimately, she says, marijuana is "just a tool to gain quality of
life back. Medical marijuana will not save someone from cancer, it
won't save someone from HIV. We can't cure people but what we can do
is put a smile on their faces and allow them to keep what they have.
Whatever dignity, whatever compassion, whatever love they have for
themselves, they can keep."

With about 2,100 members - "and growing!" cheers Cooke - the Toronto
Compassion Centre staff say they are thrilled to continue their work
in the Church St neighbourhood.

"We've been waiting for this for a long time," says Curley. "This
location has given us so much support. The village is going to pot!"

http://www.Torontocompassioncentre.org