MARIJUANA GROWER SUPPORTS TORIES' CHILD-CARE PROPOSAL

The father of a disabled boy brought to a Conservative news conference
to criticize the Liberals' child-care plan, and to defend a parent's
right to choose what is best for his or her child, boasted on a
newspaper website of having found a legal loophole that lets him sell
marijuana to the sick -- something that contravenes the law.

Mark-Alan Whittle, who appeared yesterday beside Tory MP Rona Ambrose,
bills himself the chief executive of Logan's Pony Club -- a business
named after his son, Logan, 9, who has cerebral palsy -- which he said
was set up last summer for the sole purpose of selling marijuana.

"Now I can recruit medicinal-use permit holders who will designate
Logan's Pony Club as their designated grower of medicine," Mr. Whittle
wrote on the website of Hour, a Montreal newspaper, on Sept. 2.

Mr. Whittle joined Ms. Ambrose, the Tory child-care critic, at a
Parliament Hill news conference to respond to comments by high-ranking
Liberals -- including the prime minister's director of communications,
Scott Reid -- that there is nothing in the Conservative child-care
plan, which offers some parents a $1,200-a-year allowance, to ensure
it is not spent on "beer and popcorn."

Mr. Whittle told reporters he and his wife "had to give up everything"
to care for their son, who now attends public school.

Mr. Whittle operates a personal website featuring the same name as the
marijuana enterprise. It shows pictures of him and his son.

On the Hour website, Mr. Whittle explains he registered a "sole
proprietorship business" with Revenue Canada in order to get a GST
account allowing him to pay taxes on the sale of marijuana. Approval
from the federal government came through Aug. 17.

"My vision for the future is to see Logan's Pony Clubs become the
best-practice entity to entrust to grow and produce the most effective
cannabis for medicinal use in Canada," he writes, adding the licence
will allow him to "recruit medical-use permit holders who will
designate Logan's Pony Club as their designated grower of medicine."

However, he does not appear to realize that his business plan -- to
become a bulk supplier of medicinal marijuana -- contravenes of the
law. Those designated to grow pot for the sick cannot grow and sell
the drug to more than one person.