BAIL RULES BLOCK CENTRE FROM SELLING POT

Group Claims It Only Supplies Marijuana To The Terminally Ill

Three men and one woman arrested by a Toronto drug squad were released on
bail yesterday on the condition they shut down a medical marijuana
distribution network they have built up in order to sell drugs to 1,200
Ontarians.

Warren Hitzig, 25, Zachary Naftolin, 24, Andrea Horning, 41, and Markos
Koutoukis, 25, were taken into custody by members of the Toronto Drug Squad
South late Tuesday at the culmination of an investigation by police into
the Toronto Compassion Centre, a marijuana distribution network run by
Hitzig that offers "medicinal" drugs to terminally ill club members.

Yesterday, the four appeared before a Toronto judge, who agreed to release
them on bail under strict conditions, including abandoning the practice of
trafficking drugs to the organization's 1,200 members, whose numbers have
been growing since the centre opened in 1998.

"Technically, we know there is no legal authority for us to distribute
marijuana to sick people," said Alan Young, a Toronto lawyer and a
spokesman for the centre.

Young said the centre has been operating illegally for five years, ever
since his requests for authorization were turned down by the Department of
Justice and Health Canada.

While it is legal for patients to possess and cultivate marijuana for
certain medical conditions, it remains illegal for organizations to sell
marijuana to those patients.

However, he said he was shocked to learn police had raided the centre
because police and government officials have known about the operation for
years and have had full access to the premises, which he said operates on
the principle of full disclosure.

"The police knew that if they felt they needed to take the club down, we
would have given them the case on a silver platter," Young said.

"I have personally spoken to at least 12 police officers since the start
who have arrested people buying from the club. Each and every time police
were willing to turn a blind eye because they knew what the public service
element of this was," he said. "If this club was going to traffic to
non-medical users, it would not operate openly."

Because he sought authorization from the beginning, Young said he believes
the centre has a legal case, based on the concepts of medical necessity and
"no other reasonable legal alternative," a principle used successfully by
abortion activist Henry Morgentaler.

He said he believes the police investigation began last December, when
officers were called to the centre's headquarters on Bathurst Street after
a break-in.

"We had had so many positive interactions in the past, I believed we were
skating on very solid ice," he said. "Unfortunately [at the time of the
break-in], there was a certain amount of inventory in their basement, and
with so many officers being there no one was willing to simply walk away
from it. I told the investigating officer that if the police decided they
wanted to lay charges, I would provide any witnesses or documentation they
needed to build a case," he said.

Yesterday Sergeant Jim Muscat, a spokesman for the Toronto Police
Department, said police have used discretion when laying charges for
possession of small amounts of marijuana, but never for trafficking.

"Essentially, this location is a business where marijuana is sold for
profit. There is a fine line between what the explanation may be and what
the truth is," he said.

"The officers investigating the case have more evidence to suggest that
marijuana is not merely being sold to people for medicinal purposes."

Warren Hitzig, founder and director of the club, said prospective members
must present documentation from a physician stating they require marijuana
or hashish for medicinal purposes to help manage pain or a terminal illness.

Members must also observe strict rules, including abstaining from reselling
or redistributing the drugs they buy at the non-profit centre regardless of
whether they have a licence from the federal government to possess or grow pot.

His centre, he said, exists because while the government has begun to
authorize terminally ill people to smoke pot, there is nothing in place to
help patients grow it.

"We are trying to provide a legitimate resource. The only reason we exist
is because the government hasn't established [a resource] itself," Hitzig said.