RCMP BUST MARIJUANA SUPPLIER FOR SICK PEOPLE

The Mid-Island Compassion Club has been busted by Comox Valley
RCMP.

Mark Russell, the founder of the Coombs chapter of the Cannabis
Buyers Club of Canada, which supplies marijuana to sick people who
use it for pain relief, was raided by Courtenay-based Mounties Dec.
22 and now faces six counts of trafficking in a controlled substance.

"They came to the house at noon with a warrant and asked me to open
the safe," says Russell. "They removed our medicine, documents,
paperwork, client lists, everything."

Russell, who has run the Mid Island Compassion Club for the past five
years and who has 85 clients, was taken to the Oceanside RCMP station
in Parksville, fingerprinted and released.

"They were here for a total of about three hours," the Dashwood
resident says. "I was ordered not to continue running the club or
they would arrest me. I feel sick about this. Stunned."

Comox Valley RCMP Const. Derek Kryzanowzki says the search warrant
came as the result of an ongoing investigation that had been in
progress for over a year.

"Essentially it was an ongoing investigation that culminated in
getting a search warrant because of illegal activity going on there,
which was trafficking in marijuana."

Kryzanowzki says the bust was not part of a coordinated campaign
against medical marijuana compassion clubs, nor was it instigated by
a complaint from the general public.

"It was self-generated through one of the members in the drug section
who initiated the investigation," he says.

Kryzanowzki says police have no interest in going after the people on
Russell's client list.

"They (the names) are going to be returned to him and were not even
recorded," he says. "They have no bearing on the case. We are
strictly looking at (Russell) for trafficking and we have no interest
in his so-called clients. I have no copies of them and they are
sealed up."

He says police seized approximately 390 grams of marijuana in the
bust. Russell says he doesn't sell marijuana to people off the
street, but strictly to sick people who use it for pain relief, and
to their caregivers.

"We deal strictly with people who have medical conditions," he says.
"They have to prove they have a medical condition before they can
join the club."

Before they took his membership lists away, RCMP let Russell
photocopy them for his own records aE" but not, he says, before they
blacked out one name.

"One undercover officer came up as a club member," he
says.

"He said he had a brain tumour and he signed up with the paperwork
saying he had a brain tumour. He had a caregiver signed in as well."

Russell says he plans to stop selling the marijuana for now, although
he says the compassion club will continue to operate.

"There is a need for it," he says.