LICENSED MARIJUANA USER BUSTED FOR GROW-OP

Woman Says Permit To Produce Own Plants Had Not Arrived In Mail

A wheelchair-bound licensed medical marijuana user has been charged for
growing 10 marijuana plants in her Kemptville home.

Margaret Harrington, 51, said she had applied for a grower's licence -- of
which there are 474 issued to Canadians under Health Canada's Marijuana
Medical Access Regulations -- because she could not find a licensed
cultivator to meets her needs.

But that permit had not yet arrived in the mail by the time the Ontario
Provincial Police came to her house Friday to speak to her about another
matter. When an officer picked up the fresh scent of marijuana wafting from
her basement, she showed her Health Canada card allowing her to possess
marijuana, and led the officer to the basement.

When Ms. Harrington couldn't produce the second grower's permit that allows
her to grow up to 25 plants, the officers confiscated the plants and
lights. She was charged with "unlawfully produced substance" and will
appear in court May 4.

OPP Const. Cathy Lindsey said a medical marijuana patient must show
officers two pieces of photo identification issued by Health Canada if they
intend to grow marijuana in addition to possessing it. Const. Lindsey
acknowledged that Ms. Harrington told the officer she was waiting for the
permit allowing her to grow the marijuana to arrive.

Const. Lindsey also said she is not aware of any cases where plants have
been seized when a licensed grower produces a permit.

Ms. Harrington says government-issued marijuana is substandard. "I could
buy on the black market, but that is illegal as well as expensive.

"The only thing left to do is grow my own. I don't know what to say, just
that they (the police and government) are not for the people."

Ms. Harrington can walk only short distances and endures constant pain
because of past accidents, surgeries, and ailments like fibromyalgia, which
causes severe pain in the muscles, ligaments, and tendons.