News (Media Awareness Project) - CN BC: Medical Pot Farm Busted |
| Title: | CN BC: Medical Pot Farm Busted |
| Published On: | 2001-04-12 |
| Source: | Province, The (CN BC) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-01 13:15:49 |
MEDICAL POT FARM BUSTED
Plants Destroyed As Compassion Club Leaders Met With Allan Rock
At the very moment the federal health minister was discussing medicinal
marijuana with B.C.'s "compassion clubs," police were raiding the club's
supply.
About 1,000 marijuana plants were chopped down and hauled away from the
club's grow operation at a greenhouse in Richmond on Tuesday -- the same
day the group met with Health Minister Allan Rock to discuss the
distribution of medical marijuana.
The club's founder thinks Rock deliberately had the Mounties haul away
their stash.
"Can you believe it -- holy irony, eh?" Hilary Black said after the bust.
Black said Rock had requested a meeting with members of the B.C Compassion
Club Society to discuss the operation's distribution of marijuana to those
in medical need.
Black said that, while she was talking with Rock and his assistant David
Herferd, she received a phone call informing her that one of the club's
contracted production sites was being raided by police.
She says 1,000 plants seized by police would have supplied the club's 1,400
members with low-cost, high-quality medicinal cannabis.
Black noted the bust followed close on the heels of Rock's announcement
that Ottawa will begin clinical trials of medicinal marijuana.
"It seems like two hands of the government doing different things," she said.
The club is supplied by 12 growers who sign a cultivation contract. The
growers cannot sell to anyone else and agree to visits from the club's
inspectors who make sure the pot is organically grown.
The pot raid was at the research farm of Dr. Paul Hornby. Hornby, a herbal
medicine researcher, has a licence from Health Canada to possess and
produce cannabis.
The address on his licence was that of his lab, but the greenhouse is
located on his research farm.
Hornby is upset at the treatment he received from the RCMP.
"They held my five-year-old son and 65-year-old mother-in-law at gunpoint,"
he said.
Two volunteer gardeners along with Hornby were arrested and likely face
drug charges.
"It's such a heartbreak," said Black. "It's the only place we can get herb
that's not criminally priced."
Plants Destroyed As Compassion Club Leaders Met With Allan Rock
At the very moment the federal health minister was discussing medicinal
marijuana with B.C.'s "compassion clubs," police were raiding the club's
supply.
About 1,000 marijuana plants were chopped down and hauled away from the
club's grow operation at a greenhouse in Richmond on Tuesday -- the same
day the group met with Health Minister Allan Rock to discuss the
distribution of medical marijuana.
The club's founder thinks Rock deliberately had the Mounties haul away
their stash.
"Can you believe it -- holy irony, eh?" Hilary Black said after the bust.
Black said Rock had requested a meeting with members of the B.C Compassion
Club Society to discuss the operation's distribution of marijuana to those
in medical need.
Black said that, while she was talking with Rock and his assistant David
Herferd, she received a phone call informing her that one of the club's
contracted production sites was being raided by police.
She says 1,000 plants seized by police would have supplied the club's 1,400
members with low-cost, high-quality medicinal cannabis.
Black noted the bust followed close on the heels of Rock's announcement
that Ottawa will begin clinical trials of medicinal marijuana.
"It seems like two hands of the government doing different things," she said.
The club is supplied by 12 growers who sign a cultivation contract. The
growers cannot sell to anyone else and agree to visits from the club's
inspectors who make sure the pot is organically grown.
The pot raid was at the research farm of Dr. Paul Hornby. Hornby, a herbal
medicine researcher, has a licence from Health Canada to possess and
produce cannabis.
The address on his licence was that of his lab, but the greenhouse is
located on his research farm.
Hornby is upset at the treatment he received from the RCMP.
"They held my five-year-old son and 65-year-old mother-in-law at gunpoint,"
he said.
Two volunteer gardeners along with Hornby were arrested and likely face
drug charges.
"It's such a heartbreak," said Black. "It's the only place we can get herb
that's not criminally priced."
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