Note: Click this link for pictures of Lynn at a previous visit to the
courthouse: http://www.drugsense.org/lynn/ Clippings about Lynn
http://www.mapinc.org/harichy.htm
Letters by Lynn http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Harichy
Bookmark: additional articles on medical cannabis in Canada are available
at http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm

MEDICINAL POT ISSUE DRAWS FEW SUPPORTERS

Anticipated support at a court appearance for a London medical marijuana
advocate and her husband went up in smoke yesterday.

Lynn Harichy, 38, said she was "disappointed" more people weren't on hand
when she and her husband, Mike, 48, made a brief appearance before Ontario
Court Justice Gregory Pockele on charges of trafficking and production of
marijuana.

"I was expecting a lot more people," she said outside the courthouse,
adding she was hoping for up to 200 supporters.

But only a handful of people -- including a man from Cannabis Compassion
Centre in Windsor and a Toledo, Ohio, man from Drugsense, an American
advocacy group -- were in the courtroom. The Harichys are scheduled to
return to court Oct. 11 when a trial date will be set.

The London woman came to national prominence three years ago when she tried
to smoke pot on the steps of London police headquarters.

She says she needs the drug to control the symptoms of multiple sclerosis
(MS) such as shaking and nausea.

Charges laid for possession at that time were stayed last year.

The couple also ran the now-closed Cannabis Compassion Centre on Wellington
Street and delivered pot to more than 600 people with serious illnesses
such as MS, AIDS and cancer.

Mike Harichy pleaded guilty to trafficking marijuana through the centre
last year and was fined $300.

Though supporters stayed away from the courthouse yesterday, Lynn Harichy
said she was buoyed by more than 400 e-mails from Australia, Iceland and
the United States sent to her since she and her husband were charged last
month.

London police said they seized 58 marijuana plants and more than 2,300
grams of marijuana from a home on Teeple Terrace. The value of the drugs
was estimated at more than $71,000.

"They took our plants, scared my one son and took us to jail," Lynn Harichy
said.

The Harichys' lawyer, Gord Cudmore, called the most recent charges a "major
case" and said he wants to move ahead with a trial quickly.

To speed up the court process, the Harichys admitted yesterday that the
substance seized by police is marijuana, eliminating any needed analysis by
the Crown.

Cudmore said he is concerned about his client's health. "She has good days
and bad days," he said. "She advises me that the marijuana does make it
easier."

Lynn Harichy said she is feeling "pretty good" except for a stubborn cold
that is increasing her MS symptoms.

She added that her husband is ill with hepatitis. "We haven't had any pot
since (the August bust), just the odd stuff that's not very good," she said.

Two years ago, Lynn Harichy took her case for legalization to federal
Health Minister Allan Rock, who later approved medicinal use of marijuana
on a trial basis to a small group.