POT NOT A POLICE PRIORITY, DEPUTY CHIEF TESTIFIES AT TRIAL

Victoria's No. 2 cop testified in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday that
neither the Vancouver Island Compassion Society nor its distribution
of medical marijuana has ever been the subject of a criminal investigation.

Deputy Chief Bill Naughton said the society's Cormorant Street office
of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society has not generated any
complaints, adding marijuana ranks behind drugs like cocaine,
methamphetamine and heroin in terms of Victoria police priorities.

"The enforcement of federal laws against marijuana takes a back
seat," said Naughton, who was subpoenaed by the defence in the trial
of Michael Swallow, 41, and Mat Beren, 33.

Both men were charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking and production of marijuana after a police raid on a
compassion club grow-op.

In fact, it was the RCMP, not Victoria police, who in May 2004 raided
the house near Sooke used by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society
to grow marijuana for its 600-odd members. Compassion club is the
name commonly given to groups organized by citizens to supply
marijuana as medicine.

Swallow and Beren's lawyers have mounted a constitutional challenge
to Canada's medical-marijuana regulations, contending they force
people to obtain drugs on the black market.

That's because, critics say, government-produced pot is poor quality,
and rules for designated growers are too restrictive.

Also testifying yesterday in Victoria was Senator Pierre Claude
Nolin, who chaired the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs,
which called in 2002 for the legalization of marijuana in Canada.

Nolin told the court the regulations, as they currently exist, are an
obstacle to Canadians who want access to medical marijuana.

He said the rules ask doctors to be "gatekeepers" for access to legal
marijuana. It's a role doctors don't want, and so Canadians are being
denied access to a medical product.

"[The] medical profession is reluctant, generally reluctant," he
said. "They don't want to be the gatekeepers, they don't want that
responsibility."

Canada's medical-marijuana laws, developed in response to earlier
court rulings, allow citizens to use marijuana for medical purposes -
for example, for relief from seizures or nausea. But approval
requires a doctor to fill out and sign a form.

Patients can then grow their own marijuana, designate someone to grow
it for them or buy it from the government, which has hired a company
to grow pot in Flin Flon, Man.

Nolin, a Tory, said it would be more effective to have the government
control the flow of marijuana through licensed distribution centres
set up across the country.

"We need to have a controlled environment," he said.